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THE BOY WITH THE AMERICAN 

RED CROSS 


BOOKS BY FRANCIS ROLT-V/ HEELER 


m. S. Service Series 

Illustrated. Large nmo. Cloth. Price $1.75 each. 

THE BOY WITH THE TJ. S. SURVEY 
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. FORESTERS 
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. CENSUS 
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. FISHERIES 
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. INDIANS 
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. EXPLORERS 
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THE BOY WITH THE U. S. MAIL 
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. WEATHER MEN 
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. NATURALISTS 
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. TRAPPERS 
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. INVENTORS 
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. SECRET SERVICE 
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. MINERS 
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. DIPLOMATS 
THE BOY WITH THE U S. RADIO 
THE BOY WITH THE AM. RED CROSS 


flDuseum Series 

Illustrations from Photographs. Large i2mo. Cloth. 
Price $1.75 each. 

THE MONSTER-HUNTERS 
THE POLAR HUNTERS 
THE AZTEC-HUNTERS 
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HUNTERS OF OCEAN DEPTHS 


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With Illustrations from unusual War Photographs and 
Sketches. Large i2mo. Cloth. Price $1.75 each. 

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With Illustrations from Photographs and Diagrams. 
Large i2mo. Cloth. Price $2.50. 

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4 ** 
444 
44 4 


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' 

Copyright by Keystone View Co. 




Miss Nippon thanks America. 


Yukika Haraguchi, daughter of the military attache of the 
Japanese Embassy, on the steps of American Red Cross Head¬ 
quarters, extending the thanks of Japan for the most superb 
gift of help ($11,600,000) ever recorded in history, to aid the 
victims of the greatest disaster the world has ever seen — the 

Tokyo Earthquake. 





U. S. SERVICE SERIES 


/ 


THE BOY WITH THE 
AMERICAN RED CROSS 


By 

FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER 

>) 


/ 


With Forty-Eight Illustrations 
From Photographs 



BOSTON 

LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 






Copyright, 1925, 

By Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 
All Rights Reserved 
The Boy With the American Red Cross 


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Printed in U. S. A. 


IRorwood fl>rees 

BERWICK & SMITH CO. 
Norwood, Mass. 


© Cl A 8 6 958 7 '• 

OCT 17*25 / 


"VvO 


V 





PREFACE 


The splendor of adventure appears in its most 
luring and romantic form when allied to heroic 
deeds; in no branch of daring does it rise to greater 
heights than in those great world-rescues which are 
done under the banner of the American Red Cross. 

All civilization holds a throb of pity when some 
great disaster takes its toll of death and distress, 
all civilization thrills with admiration and sympathy 
when some great work of relief not only gives food 
to the starving and houses to the homeless, but also 
restores comfort in distress and hope in despair. 

When a tornado lays its black finger of destruc¬ 
tion upon the land, when floods turn a river into a 
raging torrent, when vast fires lay everything waste, 
when mysterious epidemics ravage a whole country, 
when famine decimates a population, when earth¬ 
quakes shake great cities into ruins, when molten 
lava from volcanic eruptions engulfs whole villages, 
then do the Red Cross heroes spring to the fore, and 
the heart of humanity answers with a universal cry. 

In times of war, in times of catastrophe, in times 

v 


VI 


PREFACE 


of peace, the Red Cross stands foremost. To reveal 
the greatness of its work, to show how every Ameri¬ 
can can be a partaker therein, and to give yet an¬ 
other reason for deep-held love to the United States, 
is the aim and purpose of 

The Author. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I 

The Tornado’s Track ----- l 

CHAPTER II 

A Knight in Overalls 23 

CHAPTER III 

The Old Crusaders ----- 53 

CHAPTER IY 

Heroes of Humanity - - - - -78 

CHAPTER Y 

The Train of Death ----- no 

CHAPTER YI 

The Juniors— “I Serve” - 132 

CHAPTER YII 

A Land of Refugees - - - - -155 

CHAPTER YIII 

Earthquake and Famine - - - - 180 

CHAPTER IX 

The Yolcano Speaks ----- 204 

CHAPTER X 

A Red Wall of Doom - 229 

CHAPTER XI 

True Preparedness ----- 253 

CHAPTER XII 

Four-footed Heroism - - - - - 278 

«• 

VII 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Miss Nippon Thanks America - - Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

The Great Tornado Sweeping Down upon Omaha 22 

What the Bed Cross Workers Found an Hour 

Later - -- -- --22 

Rescue Coming at 100 Miles an Hour 23 

“ At a Certain Station on the Line from the Front 

to the Base Hospital ” - - 52 

The Holocaust at Salem, Mass. 53 

Florence Nightingale ----- - 98 

Henri Dunant -------98 

Jane Delano - -- -- --98 

American National Red Cross Headquarters at 

Washington ------ 99 

“ On the Train of Death ” - - - - - 116 

The Good Ship Red Cross - - - - -117 

When the Hands Make Good the Words: “I 

Serve” ------- 140 

Boy Scouts and Junior Red Cross Work Closely 

Hand in Hand ----- 141 

Exchanging Populations by Treaty - - - 162 

Where Cross and Crescent Meet - - - 163 

Messina just after the Terrible Earthquake - 180 

San Francisco, after Earthquake and Fire - - 180 

• • • 

Vlll 


ILLUSTRATIONS ix 

“ Straighten that out for Me with the Govern¬ 
ment, Please! ” - - - - 181 

Lushing Red Cross Food Supplies across the 

Flood-Swept Famine Area of China - - 198 

Heroism at its Highest ----- 199 

The Scramble up the Volcano - 220 

Looking Down into the Crater of Etna - - 221 

Looking Down at the Crater of Vesuvius - - 221 

Village on Etna being Buried in Molten Lava - 246 

Striking Photograph of Etna’s New Craters in 

Eruption ------- 247 

When the Fire Demon is Loosed - - - 262 

On Guard ------- - 263 

In Action ------- - 263 

What Gives Stomach-Ache—and What Gives 

Muscle ------- 272 

First Aid in Time of Urgent Need - - - 273 

Two of the Many Uses of Trained Red Cross 

Dogs ------- 284 

First Aid in Industrial Emergencies - - - 285 

“ Mush, You Huskies! ” ~ 294 

Within the Arctic Circle ----- 295 




THE BOY WITH 
THE AMERICAN RED CROSS 


CHAPTER I 

THE TORNADO’S TRACK 

“ May I take the big car out, Mr. Oglethorpe? 
Right away?” 

The request was made breathlessly. 

“ What for? ” 

“ Bad tornado in Boniton, sir; a couple of hundred 
killed, hundreds injured! ” 

The banker lifted his eyebrows and glanced ironic¬ 
ally at his usually imperturbable chauffeur. 

“ I didn’t know you were a sensation-hunter, 
Martin.” 

“ I’m a Red Cross man, sir! ” 

“ You are? ” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Ah, that’s different.” A note of respect crept 
into the financier’s tone. “ Still, I want the car my¬ 
self this afternoon.” 

“ What for? ” 


1 


2 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“Is that any of your business?" his employer 
queried sharply. 

“Yes, sir; it is! ” Martin’s retort was emphatic, 
though the tone was more respectful than the words. 
“ The Red Cross comes ahead of any man’s private 
affairs.’’ 

“ But this happens to be my car.’’ 

“ It doesn’t! Not now! Not when disaster calls! 
You’ve got no rights bigger than human suffering! ’’ 

John Oglethorpe stared amazedly at his man, who 
had always been obedient to his slightest order. 
This time, the positions were reversed, and it was 
the chauffeur who dominated. 

The old banker was too keen a judge of human 
character not to recognize forcefulness when he saw 
it, and he was also democratic enough to appreciate 
worth in any man. He put his hand in his breast 
pocket. 

“Very good, Martin; take the car. The people 
may need help there. How much do you-’’ 

“ Bring your pocketbook along, sir.’’ 

“ You expect me to come? ” 

“ Your driving coat’s in the car already." 

Oglethorpe was a man of quick decision. Though 
personal intervention in a crisis was far from his 
sedentary nature, he saw Martin’s view-point in a 



THE TORNADO’S TRACK 


3 


flash. Perhaps, if truth be told, a certain inner pride 
forbade him to appear indifferent to a summons for 
help. Not that he cared what a chauffeur might 
think about him, but, as he had said himself, a Red 
Cross man was different. He rose instantly and 
walked to the door, which Martin held open re¬ 
spectfully. 

“ I’d promised to take Gavin out this afternoon,” 
commented the banker, as they walked down the 
palin-bordered hall. 

“ He’s in the car now.” 

“Man!” Oglethorpe halted, abruptly. “You 
don’t intend to take him, too? ” 

“ Why not, sir? ” 

“ With dead and dying everywhere, according to 
your account—that’s no place for a boy! ” 

“ Gavin’s going to be rich, sir, isn’t he? ” 

“ He’ll be well enough off, I suppose,” admitted 
the banker, with a self-satisfied smile. 

“ Then the sooner he does see something like that, 
the better. He’ll have a chance to learn what 
money’s worth.” 

“ You’re a Socialist, Martin? ” 

“I, sir? No, sir; not at all! I’m a Red Cross 
man, sir.” 

He went down the front steps two at a time, the 


4 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

banker following him with the same vigor, though 
he had not done such a thing for twenty years. 

Gavin hailed him excitedly: • 

“Coming, Father? Fine! Martin said you 
would! ” 

The elderly man jumped into the car without a 
word, and none too soon, for the big automobile was 
already wheeling around the curve of the drive. It 
shot out between the entrance gate-posts and 
swerved on to the grey rain-swept road, anglewise to 
the howling wind, an aftermath of the tornado which 
had devastated the country a hundred miles away. 

The speedometer jumped to fifty, sixty, almost 
seventy! 

“ If old Constable Jake sees us,” commented 
Oglethorpe, “ there’ll be some pretty fines to pay! ” 

“ He won’t say a word, Father.” 

“ Why not? ” 

“ While Martin ran up to your study, I fastened 
a whopping Red Cross sign on the front of the 
radiator, big enough to be seen a hundred yards 
away.” 

“ Where did you get it? ” 

“ It’s a dress or something. I found it hanging in 
a cupboard.” 

The banker leaned forward and smiled grimly as 


THE TORNADO’S TRACK 


5 


he recognized the twisted remnants of a Paris gown 
which his wife had particularly prized for its glorious 
color and cut. He said nothing, for what was the 
use now? Indeed, talking was not easy, for the car, 
despite its weight, was fairly bouncing along the 
road, and Martin’s hand never left the raucous horn. 

As they approached a typical small farming town, 
the car slowed down a little and conversation became 
possible, even though the cutting wind blew the 
words to shreds. 

“ Did Martin tell you how he got the news? ” 
came the query. 

“ By ’phone from the Red Cross Chapter at Kelly- 
boro, in the next county; there isn’t any Chapter in 
this one,” Gavin answered. “ So far as I can make 
out, he was practically ordered to report for duty.” 

“And if I hadn’t given permission?” 

The boy grinned. 

“ Guess you’d have been out a chauffeur, Father! ” 

The banker’s pride was piqued. While this was 
the first time that he had ever come in personal con¬ 
tact with the Red Cross at work, he had a profound 
admiration for it in a vague sort of way and had 
given more than a hundred thousand dollars to the 
cause during the World War. Yet, even so, the 
idea that his chauffeur was ready to abandon him 


6 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

at a moment’s notice, because of a Red Cross call, 
came near to irritating him. 

A few minutes later, the car swerved off the main 
road and shot up a narrow country lane. At the 
speed they were going, the automobile began to 
bump and jolt like a springless farm wagon behind 
a bolting horse. Oglethorpe leaned forward. 

“ What—are—you—going—this way—for? ” he 
jerked out, between the bumps. 

“ Two villages on the highway have been wiped 
out,” the chauffeur answered in the same jerky 
speech, and holding tightly with one hand to the 
side of the car as it skidded on the muddy lane. 
“ Likely there’d be smashed houses scattered all 
over the road, and we couldn’t get by.” 

The banker leaned back again with a gesture of 
resignation. Martin was in command, there was 
no doubt as to that. 

A few moments later, Gavin cried excitedly: 

“ Look, Father! ” 

There, right in the middle of a wheat field, was 
the roof of a barn, apparently intact. 

“ I don’t remember any farm buildings about 
here,” remarked the banker. 

“ There weren’t any/’ declared Martin over his 
shoulder. “ That’s come from miles away! ” 



THE TORNADO’S TRACK 


7 


They went on, more slowly now, for signs of the 
tornado’s fury were beginning to appear: a rafter, a 
splintered board, the shattered remains of a buggy, 
and, a little farther, a hen-coop. 

Just round a turn of the road a good-sized tree 
had fallen, uprooted, and barred the way. The 
four-wheel brakes just checked the car in time to 
save a crash. Martin swerved out into the rough 
hay meadow and back into the road, taking the two 
ditches almost at a jump. Oglethorpe felt as if his 
teeth had been shaken out of his gums. 

“ You told me when I engaged you, Martin, that 
you’d driven a motor ambulance at the Front during 
the War,” he commented. “ I hope you didn’t take 
the wounded at this speed! ” 

“ A good bit faster sometimes, sir,” the chauffeur 
answered, “ and over worse roads than this! ” 

They drove on as swiftly as they dared, for there 
was no saying now what obstacles might not bar 
the way. 

A little farther, Martin raised his hand and 
pointed to the left. 

“ That’s Grantburg, sir! ” 

“ Shades of mercy! It’s all in ruins! I can hear 
screaming! Stop, Martin; stop! ” 

The car sped on. 


8 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ Stop, I tell you! ” 

“ We’re going on to Boniton.” 

“ Stop!” 

The chauffeur half turned, and in his voice rang 
the steel of disciplined command. 

“ Mr. Oglethorpe, you’ve got to understand that 
relief work must sometimes seem to be as merciless 
as war. A big disaster supersedes a little one. If we 
stop to help a dozen people we rob a thousand of 
the aid they have the right to expect! ” 

And he stepped on the gas. 

The wind howled about them madly. The mud 
splattered to right and left, the big car, accustomed 
to the best roads only, lurched and banged from rut 
to hollow as the inexorable driver forced it on. The 
tension of the ride and Martin’s authoritativeness 
exasperated the banker almost beyond endurance. 
Wealthy as he was, as he always had been, this en¬ 
forced subordination to his own chauffeur made him 
wild. Had he dared, he would have wrenched the 
wheel from the driver’s hand. 

“ Lippville, Father! ” 

Scored, scarred, and ravaged, wrecked houses 
standing out against the sky, an iron-framed wind¬ 
mill twisted on its base like a corkscrew, the little 
hamlet spoke eloquently of the fury of the storm. 


THE TORNADO’S TRACK 


9 


That any houses remained at all was explained by 
a broad gash between the road and the village, a 
brown gash of destruction. There crops, trees, and 
hedges had been uprooted by the fearful suction of 
the whirling blast, or had been razed clear to the 
ground. Lippville had been just on the edge of it, 
and the path of devastation, barely a couple of 
hundred yards wide, had only skirted the line of 
dwellings. 

“ Wasn’t Jed Roode’s place somewhere about here, 
Gavin? ” the banker queried. “ Somewhere between 
Lippville and the road? ” 

“ It surely was! Do you suppose- ” 

A cellar-hole in the ground, with some overturned 
agricultural machinery near by, sufficiently answered 
the question. The house, the barn, the outbuildings, 
had vanished. 

As for Roode and his family—who could tell? 

Oglethorpe fell silent, thinking, and he did not 
speak again until the car slowed up, not far from 
Boniton. Some large squared logs lay across the 
road, blown from a timber yard, fully half a mile 
away. 

Martin stopped the car and jumped out. 

“ Give a hand, both of you! ” 

The order was peremptory. 



10 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

Gavin vaulted over his side of the car, and his 
father, to do him credit, was but little slower. At 
a sign from the chauffeur the banker stooped and 
took hold of one end of a large beam, stiffly and 
awkwardly. But the strength was there—unex¬ 
pected strength. With Martin he heaved the beam 
to one side of the road. 

Without a word said, off went the otter-lined over¬ 
coat, the coat and waistcoat. A different man stood 
there, and one of powerful frame. 

At the lifting of the second beam, a new spirit 
came into the city financier. He went at the task 
eagerly. A forgotten youth began to awaken. He 
picked up a heavy plank alone, and tossed it aside 
with a grunt of satisfaction. The boy fairly gasped. 
He could scarcely recognize his always slow-moving 
and dignified father. 

“ I used to play tackle on the Rutgers team,” the 
banker commented in answer to his son’s look, and 
buckled to the job. 

Martin nodded approval. 

The road clear, they went on. 

On every side evidences of ruin accumulated. 
They were nearing the track of the storm. At one 
place death showed its ghastly work, and the father 
held Gavin in conversation so that he should not 


THE TORNADO’S TRACK 11 

see. Better, the man thought, for the boy to come 
slowly to a realization of what disaster meant. 

Passing from out an orchard-bordered stretch of 
road, they came to the “ Shack-town ” section of 
Boniton—a welter of grey, slivered boards, with 
lonely and despondent figures standing here and 
there, or sitting, crouched amid the ruins of their 
homes. 

At the beginning of Hill Street, the main street 
of the town, the car stopped. It was impossible to 
advance any farther. A brick building had slumped 
in a spiral across the street, as if a giant hand had 
lifted, squeezed, and twisted it, and then let it fall. 

Martin leaped out, leaving his engine running. 
At a swift pace, clambering over the wreckage of 
fallen houses, he made his way to a point on the 
western side of the town, not far from the demol¬ 
ished City Hall, where a knot of people had con¬ 
gregated in the lee of an unroofed stone building. 

There, as the chauffeur had rightly guessed, were 
the doctors, working at topmost speed under all the 
difficulties of improvised conditions. The hospital 
had been in the very track of the twister, and the 
death-list there had been terrible. 

“ Who’s in charge? ” Martin asked curtly as he 


came up. 


12 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ No one yet! The Mayor’s dead, and the Chief 
of Police is missing. Stewart’s coming from Madon 
City with a Red Cross unit. He hasn’t got here yet. 
The road’s blocked, probably,” answered the Con¬ 
sulting Surgeon of the hospital and the leading doc¬ 
tor of the place. “ Who are you? ” 

“ Martin. Red Cross. Formerly in command of 
the motor section of an ambulance corps in Flan¬ 
ders.” 

“ Ah! That’s good. Better take temporary 
charge of relief work yourself then! ” 

The old surgeon turned to the circle of men around 
him. 

“ Boys! Here’s a Red Cross man. He’s in com¬ 
mand. Enough said! ” 

And he went back to his dreadful but humane 
business. 

Martin whirled on his heel. 

“ Rescue work, first!” he ordered. “ What are 
you all doing here looking on? Is every one out 
of the ruins? ” 

“ Wa-al-” a drawling voice began, with a note 

of protest in it. 

“ Any ex-service men here? ” Martin snapped out. 

A smart young fellow with a clear eye stepped 
forward and saluted. 



THE TORNADO’S TRACK 


18 


“ I was at Chateau Thierry/' 

“ You’re the kind I want! Take every one of 
these idlers with you and start a systematic search 
of the fallen houses—systematic, mind you! If any 
one loafs or grouches, take his name and get rid of 
him! Don’t force your men too fast, but make them 
go steady. Leave the youngsters behind; I need 
’em. Off with you! ” 

“I don’t see jest why-” the same drawling 

voice resumed, with the same intonation of queru¬ 
lousness. 

Oglethorpe stepped forward. He was a big-boned 
man and accustomed to command. Both his pres¬ 
ence and his voice carried authority. 

“ Follow the others,” he thundered, “ or you’ll see 
why quicker than you expect! ” 

The shambling slacker muttered something under 
his breath, but, after a look at the angry banker, 
did as he was told. 

Martin was already off on another line. He picked 
out the brightest-looking of the lads in the group 
which was surrounding the doctors, and bade him 
guide Gavin to the part of the town which had suf¬ 
fered least from the ravages of the tornado. 

“ Get into every house and find out how many 
beds are available,” he said curtly to the banker’s 



14 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

son. “ Make a list. As soon as you get a dozen or 
so, send a youngster here with the list so that I’ll 
know where to send the injured. I’ll look after 
stretchers and stretcher-bearers meanwhile. Lively 
now! ” 

Gavin and his guide, with a couple of smaller boys 
following, went off at a run. 

“ Mr. Oglethorpe,” continued Martin, wheeling on 
his employer, “ I’m doubting whether the Madon 
City Red Cross unit can get through to-night. It’s 
got to cross the tornado track half a dozen times. 
We’ve got a couple of thousand homeless on our 
hands, right now, without a place to sleep or a bite 
to eat. 

“ Food comes first. That means that some kind 
of a soup kitchen has got to be fixed up before even¬ 
ing. There seems to be some kind of a church still 
standing over there. See if it’s habitable. Rouse 
out the minister if you can, and get the keys; if you 
can’t, force the door. Have the janitor get a fire 
going. Then round up a few women—not the chat¬ 
tering kind—and send them over to the church.” 

“ What for?” 

“ To fix up the food, of course! After that, you 
go to all the provision stores still standing. Have 
them send over to the church everything they’ve got 


15 


THE TORNADO’S TRACK 

that can be eaten without cooking, and a lot of 
other stuff that can be quickly prepared. Some of 
the women will volunteer to cook it, that is, those 
whose houses are in good enough shape. If you 
can find any bakers, set them at work, and tell every 
woman who knows how to bake bread to get busy. 
Well round up live stock to-morrow. 

“ Oh, yes, and don’t forget to tell the storekeep¬ 
ers to make out an exact bill-” 

“ Ill settle up for all that,” interjected the banker. 

“ Don’t say so, then. It’s foolish to waste money 
which can be used for urgency. If the merchants 
think they’re selling to the Red Cross, some of them 
will be decent enough to quote wholesale prices, and 
most will ask only a small profit; but if they think 
there’s a millionaire to bleed, there’s mighty few of 
them that won’t profiteer. 

“ In any case, the Red Cross is a stickler for rigid 
bookkeeping methods, and won’t stand for any profi¬ 
teering. The motto of Headquarters is: ‘ Don’t 
stint, but don’t waste! ’ Good organization doesn’t 
take any longer to start than bad! And the quicker 
you get going, the better.” 

Oglethorpe nodded. 

“ Organization won’t bother me,” he said, “ but I 
don’t know about handling the women.” 



16 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ You won’t need to. You’ll find that once they 
know it’s for the Red Cross, every one will come 
into line without a murmur. And send me a verbal 
report within an hour! ” 

Again the banker was conscious of a fierce resent¬ 
ment for this curt fashion of ordering him about, 
but he swallowed it down and hurried off to his tasks. 

It was all that he could do to keep from running 
over to join a group of rescuers which was working 
frantically to remove the debris of a house, under 
which several members of a family were pinned, but 
he closed his ears to the cries of the wounded as best 
he could, and hurried on all the faster to the church. 

The minister was not there, having been one of 
the first to organize a rescue party, but his wife was 
in the parsonage, a prim little woman much filled 
by a sense of her own importance. She was almost 
useless from panic and distress, for her sister was 
counted among the missing. None the less, the 
banker learned from her who were the most reliable 
and efficient women of the neighborhood. 

Much to his surprise, Oglethorpe found himself 
aglow with a certain satisfaction in carrying out the 
orders of Martin, and he set his trained brain to 
the rapid mapping out of a Food Organization. He 
was amazed at the sense of relief expressed by the 


THE TORNADO’S TRACK 


17 


people of Boniton on learning that some one repre¬ 
senting the Red Cross had taken charge of the situ¬ 
ation. 

The spirit of generosity was lifted high by the dis¬ 
aster. Nearly all the merchants offered to donate 
a part of their goods, and the rest accepted readily 
the suggestion of quoting wholesale prices. Only 
one storekeeper—the biggest in the place—refused 
blankly, saying that he was already half-ruined by 
the destruction of his house, and that selling goods 
at a greatly increased price at the expense of the suf¬ 
ferers was his only chance to redeem his losses. 

Oglethorpe was not the man to be rebuffed by a 
storekeeper. 

“You yellow-souled jackal!” he stormed. “I 
wish there were martial law here! I’d have you put 
up against a wall and shot! ” 

“ Business is business,” the other responded, for 
this was his only creed. 

“ Business isn’t bloodsucking! ” raged the banker. 

He called to the men who were following him in 
wagons to take the stores to the church, and ordered 
the entire stock of the would-be profiteer to be 
seized. 

“ Listen to me! ” he continued. “ I’ll have a list 
made of everything we take and give you my per- 


18 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

sonal check for the wholesale price of your stuff, 
as on the day you bought it, plus five per cent., so 
that you won’t have a chance to complain. Then, 
when the whole story is told of the tornado relief, 
your share in it won’t be forgotten, and I shouldn’t 
be surprised if you were run out of town. I’d tar 
and feather you if I were one of the citizens of 
Boniton! ” 

But Martin frowned when told of this action. 

“ You were wrong,” he said sternly. “ You should 
have waited until all the other provisions were used 
up before seizing the man’s goods, no matter how 
mean-livered he may be. There’s no reason to com¬ 
mandeer except in case of urgency. And you’ll have 
to make it thoroughly understood that your action 
was taken on your own responsibility, not on that 
of the Red Cross. I didn’t give you the authority 
to commandeer! You haven’t ever been under dis¬ 
cipline, Mr. Oglethorpe, or you’d know that to ex¬ 
ceed orders is just as bad as to disobey them.” 

The banker, duly snubbed, returned to the church 
to supervise the work which Martin had set him to 
do. Never before had he realized what a multiplicity 
of seemingly unimportant things become questions 
of tragic import during a great crisis. For, truly, 
this was one. Over the heads of all rested the pall 


THE TORNADO’S TRACK 


19 


of a calamity. There was no one who had not lost 
either relative or friend during those four fearful 
minutes when the tornado swept in its stunning 
confusion through the city, few who were free of 
the sickening dread that comes from a constant 
repetition of horror. And, withal, such seeming 
trifles as a stove that smoked, a shrieking baby 
whose voice could not be hushed, an insufficiency of 
coffee, and even personal petty jealousies, added ex¬ 
asperation to the jangled nerves which terror and 
grief had set on edge. 

Fortunately, being accustomed to handle large af¬ 
fairs, Oglethorpe possessed the gift of quick decision, 
and though he made innumerable mistakes in his 
large-scale domestic economy, none was serious. 
Before nightfall the church was converted into an 
immense dining-hall, able to accommodate four hun¬ 
dred people at a time, and food had been got to¬ 
gether sufficient to feed four times that number. 

Gavin was working no less rapidly. He had been 
shrewd enough to think of finding out which of the 
older lads in the village were Boy Scouts. Their 
Scoutmaster, alas! was among the dead, but there 
were two Eagle Scouts in the town, and these, to¬ 
gether with Gavin, formed the nucleus of an invalu¬ 
able band of auxiliaries. They knew every one in 


20 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

the place, and no sooner did Martin or Oglethorpe 
find some vital point lacking in the relief-work sys¬ 
tem than they were able to use the eager lads as 
messengers and even as aids to supply the deficiency. 

The question of lighting was a case in point. The 
electric light plant had been wrecked, and, in order 
to carry on the rescue work uninterruptedly, it was 
necessary to have some outdoor lights. Under the 
instruction of electricians, garage-owners, and the 
like, a whole gang of boys—some of them radio fans 
and accustomed to wiring—soon worked out a sys¬ 
tem of storage-battery lights, dismounted automo¬ 
bile lamps, acetylene flares, and the like. 

They served, too, as watchers, for the inhabitants 
of “ Shack-town ” were not always to be trusted. 
The Chief of Police, who had been extricated from 
the ruins of the City Hall, despite a bandaged head 
and a splintered wrist established a patrol and kept 
order with the aid of a number of the older boys, 
every able-bodied man being needed at the work 
of rescue. 

It was not until nearly eleven o’clock at night that 
the Red Cross unit from Madon City reached the 
stricken town, bringing its chairman, another doctor, 
a dozen nurses, and ample medical equipment. An 
auto-truck with food supplies was already on the 


THE TORNADO’S TRACK 


21 


way, and others would follow at regular intervals 
until the railroad was able to repair the tracks 
wrenched up by the tornado and could resume regu¬ 
lar communication. 

Stewart, the head of the unit, was met at the 
church by Martin. The latter, concisely, made an 
introductory report and turned over the situation 
to the official Red Cross representative, outlining the 
temporary organization and summarizing the work 
that had been done. 

His report finished, Martin turned directly to 
Oglethorpe. The note of command was gone from 
his voice, the stamp of authority from his pose. The 
Director of Relief had again become the chauffeur. 

“ The car is ready, sir,” he said. 

“ The car? What for? ” 

“ To go home, sir, I supposed.” 

“ What? Go home now? And leave all this 
work to some one else? You’re crazy, man! Do 
you think I could sleep quietly now, and think of 
all these people in distress, of the men and women 
who may still be pinned under the wreckage, of the 
hundreds that we still haven’t found beds for, and 
of all the fellows who’ve been straining every nerve 
and muscle all afternoon and evening long—many 
of them not even stopping for a bite of food? 


22 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ No! If Mr. Stewart will have me, I’ll stay here 
so long as I can be of any service. The bank can 
take care of itself, so long as there’s relief work like 
this to be accomplished! 

“ As for you, Martin, I put you under Mr. Stew¬ 
art’s orders right now, and I’ll fire you if you dare 
to come back to me until he releases you! ” 

The chauffeur ventured a smile, and looked at 
the boy standing by and listening intently. 

“ And Gavin, sir? ” 

“ I’ll ask him! How about it, son? ” he queried. 

“ Me, Father? Oh, I can’t go! ” came the decided 
reply. “ It isn’t Martin that I’ve been helping, but 
the Red Cross, and that’s still on the job. I’m game 
to stick to the end—that is, if you’ll let me.” 

“ And your mother? ” 

“ I’ve thought of that. There’s a farmhouse, 
about four miles from here, where the ’phone’s still 
working. Walters, one of the Boy Scouts, has a 
motor-cycle. He can run out there in a few minutes 
and send off a message. In fact, he’s done that for 
different people a dozen times already. What shall 
I tell him to say, Father? ” 

The banker smiled, a tired but determined smile. 

“ Let him tell your mother that you and I have 
been kidnapped by the Red Cross! ” 



Copyright by T. C. Manning. 

The Great Tornado Sweeping Down upon Omaha. 



Courtesy of American Red Cross. 

What the Red Cross Workers Found an Hour Later. 









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following a destructive tornado. 






CHAPTER II 


A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 

When and where Gavin dropped asleep that 
night, he never remembered. All that he was able 
to recall was that, shortly before dawn, he sat down 
somewhere, too tired to stand up any longer, and 
went right off to sleep. He did not wake until noon, 
to find himself in the house of a woman whom he 
had never seen before. Some minutes elapsed before 
he realized that he was in Boniton, and then the 
tragic occurrences of the day before swept over him 
like a flood. 

Ashamed of his tardiness, he leaped out of bed, 
dressed at top speed, and hurried to the church 
which had been the center of operations the night 
before. 

All was changed. Just beyond the ruins of the 
Abattoir, a small city of white tents was rising. 
The streets leading to it had already been cleared 
of debris, and, over the level road leading to the 
city from the north, a string of automobiles and 
trucks could be seen coming to Boniton or leaving it. 

There were no longer any rescue gangs delving 

23 


24 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

amid the ruins of wrecked houses. Every shattered 
building had been searched, and, so far as could be 
determined from a first hasty comparison of the 
town records, there were no “ missing.” Every one 
was accounted for, either among the dead, the 
wounded, or the lucky ones who had escaped. 

“ Where’s Father, Mr. Stewart? ” queried Gavin, 
breathlessly, as soon as he could get near the Di¬ 
rector of Relief, who was standing in front of the 
church ordering and regulating the whole operation 
with short snappy commands that carried confidence 
as well as authority. 

“ Gone to bed. Only just about an hour ago, 
though. He’s good stuff, is your father! ” 

Gavin’s eyes glittered with pride. Rightly he 
judged that praise from a Red Cross man was gen¬ 
erally hard to get. 

“ Did he stay up all night then? ” 

“ He surely did, and worked like sixty! I could 
never have accomplished half of what has been done 
but for him. Mr. Oglethorpe has got just the right 
kind of head for this sort of work: he doesn’t get 
flurried, he doesn’t forget anything, he recognizes in¬ 
stinctively the proportionate value of things which 
need to be done, and he doesn’t waste time over non- 
essentials.” 


A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 


25 


“ And where's Martin? ” queried the boy. 

“ He's still at it. Oh, you don't need to worry 
about Martin! He's an ace! We know all about 
him. He's got a war record in the Red Cross that 
any one might be proud of." 

“ Why! I never heard him talk about it! " 

“ You wouldn’t. He’s not the kind to brag." 

Stewart broke off as a man came hurrying up 
from the rapidly rising Tent City; after a brief in¬ 
terchange, he gave the newcomer some incisive in¬ 
structions in regard to the construction of sanita¬ 
tion drainage for the camp, and then resumed: 

“ As a matter of fact, relief work calls for men of 
quite a special nature. Oh, I don't mean to suggest 
that all kinds of people aren't ready to help. As 
a rule it's rare to find any one who isn't willing to 
slave to the very last burst of his powers on the first 
day of a disaster; a good many overdo themselves, 
and give us more trouble afterwards. The main 
trouble with relief volunteers is that they overlap. 
Six men busy themselves over a piece of work that 
one man ought to do alone, and five equally im¬ 
portant things are left undone. 

“ The second day tells a very different story. The 
first eagerness to help has subsided into a dazed real¬ 
ization of the magnitude of the disaster, and a queer 


26 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

kind of helplessness spreads like a mental epidemic 
—I’ve seen it scores of times. 

“ The third day, generally, is worse. The stunned 
feeling lapses into a dull despair, and this abandon¬ 
ment of hope is a far worse calamity than the dis¬ 
aster which caused it. As I told your father, the 
Red Cross doesn’t give food as charity but mainly 
as a temporary measure to keep the body going until 
the normal desire for action returns to the victims 
of a disaster, bidding them act for themselves. The 
best relief work is that which creates the smallest 
amount of parasitism.” 

“ I can see that,” agreed Gavin, “ though I 
wouldn’t have thought of it. Before I came here, 
yesterday, I thought money would do everything. 
I see now it won’t.” 

“ Relief work is a question of organization far 
more than it is of money. Our ultimate aim is 
always the upbuilding of courage and the reestab¬ 
lishment of normal conditions. Your father saw 
that, without being told, and he seems to know just 
how to go about it to reach those ends. You’ve got 
no Red Cross Chapter in this county. I’ve been 
trying to persuade your father that he ought to 
organize one and take charge of the local relief 
work, himself.” 


A IvNIGHT IN OVERALLS 27 

“ I wish he would! ” declared Gavin. 

“ Why? ” 

“ Oh, it’s great! I never enjoyed myself half so 
much as I did yesterday! ” 

Stewart wrinkled his close-set, far-seeing eyes 
with a definite expression of amusement. 

“ Queer idea of enjoyment you seem to have,” he 
remarked. 

“ Well,” persisted Gavin, “ I did, just the same. 
There was a sort of a thrill about it. After all, 
school is only like everlastingly getting ready to do 
something and never doing it. Here, yesterday, 
every one was at it all the tune, and at it hard! I 
suppose it was rather dreadful in a way, but I didn’t 
think about the people being killed or hurt, or 
ruined, or any of that sort of thing, I only thought 
about helping them.” 

“ Which is exactly the right idea.” 

“ So Martin said. But I had it all wrong before, 
Mr. Stewart. I thought the Red Cross was only 
good for rescuing wounded men on the battle-field, 
and that sort of thing.” 

“ You’re not so far wrong as you think, my boy. 
That’s where Red Cross work originally began, and, 
when war is raging, it's still the biggest part of the 
work we have to do. In peace times, however, the 


28 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

Red Cross is every bit as active, for the war between 
Man and Nature is never-ceasing. Such disasters 
as are produced by hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, 
and volcanic eruptions, to say nothing of fires, 
famines, and pestilences, reap a terrible harvest of 
human lives every year. 

“ That kind of relief work, while, on the whole, it 
has been greatly heightened by our modern human¬ 
itarian outlook, existed even in early times. As far 
back as the Middle Ages the Knights Hospitallers 
used to assist the victims of earthquake disaster in 
addition to their great work of aiding the wounded 
in war.” 

“ The Knights Hospitallers, Mr. Stewart? Who 
were they? ” 

“ The real heroes of the Crusades, to my way of 
thinking. Til tell you about them at dinner-time 
if you like. Your father asked me this morning to 
give him a short account of the beginnings of the 
Red Cross. I started to tell him, but he was far too 
exhausted to take in the sense of what I was saying. 
So I sent him off to bed, though he grumbled at 
my orders like a child who is told that bedtime has 
come! ” The Red Cross man laughed. “I prom¬ 
ised him that I’d tell the whole story this evening. 
There’s your chance to hear it, unless you’re too 


A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 29 

tired to sit up. By the way, Gavin, can you run 
your father's car? ” 

“ Sure, Mr. Stewart! I do it right along! ” 

“ Good! Then I can keep you busy all the after¬ 
noon. Martin's gone down to Lippville to organize 
the relief work there. He ought to be back in about 
an hour or so. Go inside now, and get something 
to eat—there’s plenty of food here—and when 
Martin comes in you can take charge of the car and 
let him have a rest. I don't want him to break 
down." 

Gavin had learned a good deal about obeying 
orders the day before. Instead of breaking into a 
long list of queries as to what he would be expected 
to do, he asked only: 

“ Whom do I report to? " 

Stewart looked keenly at the boy. He had taken 
note of him the night before, and had realized that, 
as in the father so in the son, there was to be found 
that mixture of initiative and discipline which is 
the essential character for Red Cross work. 

“ Report to Thorsson on the North Road," he an¬ 
swered. “ Never mind his blunt manner; that's only 
on the surface. Study the man. If you can get him 
to talking, you’ll learn a lot. I mentioned the 
Knights Hospitallers a minute ago. He's a modern 


30 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

example of that same splendid old spirit, a true ex¬ 
ample of chivalry in the rough: a Knight in over¬ 
alls! ” 

Gavin nodded obedience and went in to a good hot 
lunch. The food was little more varied than army 
rations in character, but it was plentiful. The boy 
took note of everything around him. Martin’s or¬ 
ganization in the church did not seem greatly to 
have changed, and yet there was a definite smooth¬ 
ness and stability in the running, which is the surest 
sign of frictionless operation. It seemed incredible 
how in a few hours the situation had been changed 
from one of temporary expediency to one of skilfully 
organized relief. 

After lunch, Gavin hurried down to the point 
where the North Road entered the city. There, 
note-book in hand, roughly clad, stood a powerfully- 
built man with tousled tow hair and dominant grey- 
blue eyes. Gavin did not need to ask if this were 
the man to whom Stewart had referred; authority 
hovered about him like an aura. 

“ I’ve been told to report to you, Mr. Thorsson,” 
said the boy. “ I’m Gavin Oglethorpe.” 

“ The banker’s son? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ What do you suppose you can do? ” 


A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 


31 


u Relieve Martin, and run Father’s car.” 

“ Where to? ” 

u Wherever you say.” 

“ Ah! ” The man nodded. “That’s the way to 
talk! I can use you if you know enough to do what 
you’re told. But the car won’t be back for half an 
hour or more.” 

“ I can wait.” 

Thorsson frowned. 

“ Waitin’ means wastin’. Do you figure that 
standin’ around with your hands in your pockets is 
relief work? ” 

He cast a quick glance around him. 

“ There’s a house over there, half blown down,” 
he continued. “ I don’t see anybody doin’ anything 
to set it straight. Get over there, right now, an’ 
see if you can’t start somethin’.” 

This was a vague and breezy order, but Gavin 
did not hesitate. He remembered Stewart’s saying 
that initiative was as necessary as obedience, and 
he felt a thrill of pride as he realized that Thorsson’s 
words practically meant that he must decide for him¬ 
self on what action was to be taken. It was in his 
own hands to “ start something,” even in the short 
space of half an hour. 

As he scrambled over the piled confusion of tim- 


S2 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

bers and splintered boards, which were all that the 
tornado had left of the front of the house, Gavin 
braced himself to quick decision. He was terribly 
conscious of his own inexperience, but he realized 
that he must not show it. The previous night’s 
activities, under the direction of Martin, had taught 
him, to a certain extent, that the first thing to be 
done in relief work is to make immediate use of 
what still exists rather than to try to determine 
what may be needed later. 

All the front portion of the building was a wreck, 
for the edge of the tornado had cut clear through 
it; yet two rooms remained intact, save for a large 
hole in the side wall through which a falling roof- 
beam had plunged. The furniture and contents of 
the entire house lay pell-mell, scattered and strewn 
out in a curve by the suction of the whirlwind. 
Some pieces of furniture were broken to pieces, some 
not even scratched. A big bed was standing fifty 
yards from the house, the brass rail twisted and dou¬ 
bled up like a piece of soft wire, but the bedding 
had not even been ruffled. There it had stayed all 
night and all morning, and the people of the house 
had not even taken the trouble to set the bedding 
out to dry. 

In the mood of helplessness which is characteristic 


A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 33 

of the second day of a disaster, no one had tried to 
do anything. The eldest child, a girl, had been 
seriously—perhaps fatally—injured, and was under 
the care of a Red Cross nurse in the improvised 
hospital. The mother could do nothing but rock 
herself backwards and forwards with grief, while 
her husband brooded and puffed furiously at an old 
pipe. Two boys, one about eleven years of age, and 
the other a little younger, were huddled together, 
cold and miserable. They looked up as Gavin 
clambered toward them over the splintered wreck¬ 
age, but the father and mother did not move. 

In a flash, the boy realized the significance of 
Thorsson’s words: “ See if you can’t start some¬ 
thing ! ” There was the punch in it! It wasn’t what 
he did that mattered, it was the actual doing. 

“ Come on, fellows! ” he said cheerfully to the 
two boys. “ It’s up to us now! You’ve got two 
rooms all to the good in spite of the twister. Let’s 
get ’em in shape! ” 

The father looked up with an air of indifference, 
the mother did not stir; but both the lads jumped 
up at once. They were relieved to get away from 
the suppression of their parents, who, since early in 
the morning, had been bidding them to keep still. 

Gavin had not the faintest idea about housekeep- 


34 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

ing, but he remembered that Martin had told him 
the night before that food was always the first thing 
to be considered in a disaster, and that shelter only 
came second. Food, to the boy’s ideas, depended on 
a kitchen, and he knew that the Red Cross plan was 
concentrated on helping other people to help them¬ 
selves. He looked around at the pile of debris and 
at the household stuff all cluttered up with roof- 
shingles and covered with the white dust of fallen 
plaster. Pinned under a disjointed window-frame 
he saw the kitchen range. 

“ The stove looks a bit sick,” he commented, “ but 
I shouldn’t wonder if she’d work yet. And there’s 
plenty of wood to burn! Let’s take her in, fellows! ” 

It was a heavy lift for the three boys, but they 
managed it. 

“ How about stovepipe? See any around?” 

“ Squashed, mostly,” said the eldest boy. “ There 
are two or three lengths over there, though, that 
aren’t so bad.” 

Gavin looked up. 

“ The chimney’s gone, though.” 

“ Stick the pipe out of the window then,” said the 
other, who was more accustomed to makeshift ex¬ 
pediencies than the rich banker’s son. 

'‘Good scheme! ” agreed Gavin, enthusiastically. 


35 


A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 

“ We sure don’t need to worry about the glass; there 
isn’t any left to break.” 

“ Hunt up an elbow, if you can, Paul,” suggested 
the elder, as the two boys labored at fitting the ends 
of the flattened stovepipe. “Aren’t these hard to 
put together, though! ” 

They pinched their fingers several times in the 
effort, but at last they succeeded in getting the pipe 
fitted together after a fashion, using a single elbow, 
and poked it out of the window-frame. The stove¬ 
pipe was as crooked as a ram’s horn and looked most 
battered and dilapidated, but it would, at least, 
serve the purpose of giving a draught, and enabling 
a fire to be lighted. This done, Gavin turned to 
the younger lad. 

“ See if you can’t find some pots and things some¬ 
where,” he suggested. 

To the older he said: 

“ I wish we could find a hammer and some nails! 
It wouldn’t be much of a job to nail a few boards 
on that hole there, and keep some of the wind out. 
It’s going to rain again, sure, and the rain comes 
from that side.” 

“ I saw the hammer just now,” and the eldest boy 
picked it out from amid the ruins of a chest of draw¬ 
ers. “ There aren’t any nails, though.” 


36 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“Plenty of ’em! ” retorted Gavin. “Yank ’em 
out of the smashed planks.” 

At the first sound of the hammering the father 
looked around to see what the boys were doing. A 
few minutes later he knocked the ashes out of his 
pipe, rose and took the hammer from his son’s hand 
without a word, and set to work. 

Presently the younger lad came in with an armful 
of small saucepans and frying-pans, covered with 
mud and sticky with pasty plaster. At the sound 
of the clanking of the pots, the mother glanced up 
and spoke sharply: 

“ Paul! Don’t you dare put those dirty pots on 
the stove! ” 

Gavin chuckled to himself. Scolding was cer¬ 
tainly a sign of interest. 

“ But he told me-” began the boy, nodding 

his head in Gavin’s direction. 

“ Put them down! ” 

“ Where, Ma? ” 

The woman got up with a jerk, snatched one of 
the pots out of the lad’s hand, and began cleaning 
off the dirt with a slightly less muddy rag. 

It was at this point that Thorsson came crunching 
over the pile of wreckage. His experienced eye took 
in the situation at a glance. 



A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 37 

“ I knew you’d be one o’ the first to get a-goin’,” 
he said approvingly to the man who was busily en¬ 
gaged in nailing boards across the hole in the wall. 
“ All the neighbors said it would take more’n a puff 
o’ wind to break your nerve.” 

As a matter of fact no one had said anything of 
the kind to Thorsson, but the little fillip to the man’s 
pride had its effect. He made no answer, but ham¬ 
mered harder than ever. 

The relief-worker turned to Gavin. 

“ Come along, you boy chauffeur! I need you 
now! ” 

Gavin wondered at this summons, for it did not 
seem to him as if the half-hour could have passed 
already, but a shrewd look in Thorsson’s eye warned 
him against making any comment. He dropped in¬ 
stantly the table he had been examining, wondering 
how he was going to supply its missing leg, and 
straightened up. Seeing that his chief turned on his 
heel without another word, Gavin followed him. 

“ The car isn’t in sight yet,” Thorsson remarked, 
as soon as they were out of hearing. 

“ Then why-” 

“ Why did I call you away? For reasons! If 
you’d stayed around there an’ bossed the job that 
fellow would have got sore, likely, an’ felt he was 



38 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

bein' forced to work. If he does any fixin' up on his 
own hook, he’ll be so tickled with himself for doin' 
it that he’ll never stop till everything’s in shape. 
A good many men are made that way. They need 
a push, sure enough, but they need only one. Once 
you start a stone rollin’ down a hill you can leave it 
alone; there’s no need to run after it an’ push it 
some more." 

The boy felt that this was sound reasoning, though 
the idea would never have occurred to him. He 
would have stayed on to help, and according to 
Thorsson’s ideas he might have spoiled all the good 
that had been done. 

“ What did you do to start 'em off? " 

Briefly Gavin described his experiences. 

“ If you can handle a thing that way, I guess you 
can run a car all right," was the relief-worker’s word 
of praise. “ Do you know the road to Urbain? " 

“ Not from here. I know it round by Lippville." 
“ That’s the only road open now. Listen, young¬ 
ster! There’s a man pretty badly hurt here, a 
grave surgical case, who ought to be rushed off to 
the Urbain Hospital—some kind of a special opera¬ 
tion, I don't know just what. A Red Cross nurse’ll 
go along. The tin Lizzies we’ve got on hand aren't 
any good for that sort o’ work, an' your father’s car 


A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 


39 


is the only one big enough so’s the injured man can 
be taken lyin’ down. You’ll take with you an order 
to bring back some medical supplies from Urbain. 
The quicker you make the trip, the more chance 
there is for the poor chap—as long as you don’t set 
the car to jumpin’ like a jack-rabbit. Cornin’ back 
you can burn up the road all you want to; there 
ain’t any speed limits right now.” 

Gavin rubbed his hands with delight. 

“ Great! I wish there was something like this 
every day! ” 

Thorsson grabbed him by the shoulder and 
wheeled him round. The enthusiasm in the boy’s 
eyes was certainly genuine. 

“ So that’s the way you feel about it, is it? H’m. 
So do I.” 

“ Have you ever been through a tornado before, 
Mr. Thorsson? ” 

“ Tornado relief work, you mean? This is my 
fourteenth time.” 

“ It is? ” 

“ Not countin’ hurricanes.” 

“ Always with the Red Cross? ” 

“ Every time.” 

“ You’re with it all the time then? ” 

“No; only when I get the chance. I’m not on 


40 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

any regular relief staff, if that’s what you’re drivin’ 
at.” 

“ But I don’t see how-” Gavin began. 

“ Maybe not. But it’s easy to see, just the same. 
You’re not on the Red Cross, are you? ” 

“ No.” 

“ An’ yet you’re helpin’ out.” 

“ That’s because this tornado business happened 
right close to where we live, and Martin brought 
me along.” 

“ Suppose you heard of another disaster twice as 
far away, an’ Martin wanted to take you, would 
you go? ” 

“ Like a shot! ” 

“ That’s me, too.” 

“ You mean you’re just a volunteer worker? ” 

“ That’s the idea.” 

“ And Mr. Stewart? ” 

“ Oh, that’s another story. Stewart’s an official 
o’ the Red Cross, chairman of a Chapter. But he 
gives his time for nothin’, too, like most Red Cross 
leaders, if that’s what you mean, though he doesn’t 
go outside his own district. I’m a rover, an’ that’s 
different.” 

“ How? ” 

Thorsson swept the road with his glance, and not 



A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 41 

seeing the car coming, turned to the boy with a 
gesture of decision. 

“ Here, I’ll tell you what first got me into doin’ 
Red Cross work every chance I get, if you want to 
know. I was a young fellow then, lumberin’ in 
Michigan. In those days there wasn’t any Forest 
Service like there is now, with Rangers an’ Fire 
Guards an’ all, an’ forest fires used to range through 
those tamarack swamps pretty bad. 

“ Well, late one fall, in 1882 I reckon it was, a big 
fire came roarin’ through the Big Woods with a 
fifty-mile gale behind it. There’d been a long spell 
o’ drought, an’ everything was as dry as a chip. 
With the few scattered settlements o’ those days 
there wasn’t enough people to have stopped a blaze 
like that! It would have taken the whole U. S. 
army to head it off! 

“ Fire soon took hold o’ the railroad ties o’ the 
little narrow-gauge line that ran to the lumber 
camps, an’ burned ’em through; every road was 
choked with flames an’ most of ’em—bein’ corduroy 
roads, made o’ logs—were smokin’. The settlement 
where I lived with my father an’ mother was all 
ringed round with fire. 

“ We had a garden an’ a little root-cellar, ’cause 
Father was a hard worker an’ never spent a cent 


42 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

on anything he could make or raise himself. We 
chucked out the potatoes an 5 stuff out o’ that cellar, 
so as to make more room, an’ piled in there our¬ 
selves, with four of our neighbors—that was all the 
place would hold. We nearly died of suffocation 
down in that hole, but not quite, though Mother 
was unconscious for more’n an hour. At that, we 
were the lucky ones! 

“ When the fire had passed by a bit, an’ we risked 
cornin’ out for a breath of air—hot an’ smoky air 
it was, too, which cut the lungs when you breathed 
it—a good half o’ the people in the town had been 
burned to death, an’ there wasn’t a single house 
standin’. None of us had any money to speak of, 
an’ winter was cornin’ on. Starvation an’ cold were 
right ahead, an’ no way to dodge ’em. 

“ The very next day—the next day, mind you!— 
four big wagons, their wheels charred black from 
havin’ passed over the still smoulderin’ corduroy 
roads, an’ the horses’ legs all tied up in some asbestos 
canvas stuff, pulled into the clearing that had been 
a live little settlement two days afore. There was 
one Red Cross doctor, a dozen nurses, two relief- 
workers, an’ enough flour an’ bacon to last the whole 
village for a week. 

“ Next day, down from over the Canadian border, 



43 


A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 

came wagon-load after wagon-load o’ lumber, duty 
free. The Red Cross had made a special arrange¬ 
ment with the Canadian Government to help us out, 
an’ when the Red Cross talks, every one listens. Up 
the other road, from the States, came more wagons 
with food, tools, hardware, an’ a couple o’ master 
carpenters. 

“ That was all we wanted—a chance to get to 
work an’ put things in shape ourselves. Every one 
of us took a hand, an’ we slaved night an’ day. I 
was only seventeen then, but I was nigh as good an 
axeman as my father had been before he got all 
crippled up with rheumatism an’ not able to do 
much more than potter about his garden. You see, 
I’d been born with an axe in my hand, just about. 

“We worked like we was all crazy. Before snow 
flew every family—every one—had a house of its 
own, with stoves, beds an’ enough rough furniture 
to get along on. The Red Cross found a job for 
every man in the lumber camps, an’ advanced money 
all winter to our families, until we got paid after the 
drive, in the spring, when it was paid back. If it 
hadn’t been for the Red Cross my father and mother 
would have starved or frozen to death that winter. 

“ Well, after the drive we got together, all of us, 
an’ said we’d pay back the Red Cross for the lumber, 


44 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

the stoves, the food, everything. Those durn offi¬ 
cials wouldn’t take our money! The Red Cross 
folk said it was their work to get us on our feet, to 
become a self-supportin’ community once more, not 
just to make a loan an’ leave us with a debt to pay. 

“ If we wanted to show our gratitude, said they, 
all we had to do was to send help to other people 
in trouble. I tell you there’s never been a disaster 
in these United States from that day to this, that 
there hasn’t been a good lump of a donation sent 
to the Red Cross from that little lumber town in 
the north o’ Michigan. 

“ That summer Mother died an’ Father went back 
to Norway on a visit. He never came back to 
America again, but died some time after in his own 
country, as he had always longed to do. Me, I was 
born here, an’ I’m nothin’ but American. Well, Fa¬ 
ther’s goin’ left me alone, except for my brother, an’ 
I didn’t get along any too well with him. 

“ But I couldn’t forget the Red Cross. Just to 
send ’em a ten-dollar bill here, an’ a twenty there, 
seemed pretty thin to me when I remembered every¬ 
thing that had been done for us up in the lumber 
settlement. I wanted to help with my hands, since 
I wasn’t rich enough to do much with my pocket. 
But there didn’t seem to be any way. 


A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 45 


“ Then, the next winter, when I was up in lumber 
camp as usual, there came a visitin’ doctor from the 
Red Cross to teach First Aid to us lumberjacks. 
Most o’ the boys laughed at it, but I didn’t. I’d 
seen the Red Cross at work, an’ I knew what it 
could do. I ate up those First Aid lectures an’ asked 
for more. I wasn’t very strong on readin’, but, by 
spellin’ the words out some, I managed to get a 
good bit o’ the Health Manuals in my head; I 
learned a bit o’ rough nursin’, too. 

“ In the drive next spring my brother got badly 
nipped in a log jam. My knowledge o’ First Aid 
kept him goin’ till the camp doctor got there, an’, 
so I was told, what I’d done helped to pull him 
through. I’d given a hand to one or two cases 
afore, one man ’specially, who slashed into an artery 
with a glancin’ axe. 

“ After that I couldn’t keep still any more. I 
wanted the Red Cross to give me a permanent job. 
It couldn’t, for the organization then wasn’t any¬ 
thing like what it is now. But I wasn’t goin’ to 
be put down for that. Folks couldn’t prevent my 
helpin’, if I took a notion to. So I got into the 
habit o’ readin’ the newspapers. 

“ Any time a disaster was reported I stuffed my 
little savin’s into my pocket, put a change o’ socks 


46 .WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

an’ shirts an’ my First-Aid kit into a parcel, an’ got 
to the place as soon as I could. Sometimes I was 
broke an’ had to ask days’ wages when I got there, 
but generally I had enough in my pocket to keep 
me goin’ for a while, durin’ the first pinch at least, 
an’ then I’d stay on afterwards at ordinary days’ 
pay, helpin’ build the place that had been smashed 
up until news that some one was in worse trouble 
pulled me away somewhere else.” 

Gavin thought of Stewart’s description of the 
“ Knight in Overalls,” but kept silent, fearing to 
break the current of reminiscence. 

“ I put in near four years in the Mississippi Valley, 
helpin’ out the negroes after the flood of 1884,” 
Thorsson continued. “ Ask the people of the Ohio 
River if they remember the Josh V. Throop, the first 
boat that ever flew the flag of the American Red 
Cross. Go down to Cairo now, an’ though more’n 
forty years have passed, you’ll find men that can 
hardly hear that name without a gulp in the 
throat. 

“ We went up an’ down the Ohio, from Evansville 
to Cairo, an’ half the time the boat w T as outside the 
regular banks of the river while we were rescuin’ 
people from a house which was floatin’ an’ jouncin’ 
down the roarin’ flood, or climbin’ trees to cut loose 


A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 47 

men an’ women who’d tied themselves on to 
branches an’ had fainted from hunger an’ exhaus¬ 
tion, or rowin’ in small boats across fields a fathom 
deep in whirlin’ water to bring food from the steamer 
to fifty or sixty people marooned on some hill with 
the flood fairly boilin’ around it, the old craft 
steamin’ from place to place under forced draught 
in a long-strained effort to help everybody, all at 
once, over a stretch of four hundred miles o’ ruin! 

“ We’d hardly got back when news came that the 
flood crest had hit the Mississippi, an’ we took the 
Mattie Bell, one o’ the old-style paddle-boats, to do 
the same kind o’ relief work further down, on a 
stretch runnin’ nigh all the way from St. Louis to 
New Orleans. I can’t tell you how many hundreds 
o’ folk we saved from drownin’, an’ how many thou¬ 
sands from starvation. An’, at that, we didn’t get 
to a quarter o’ the places in need! It may sound 
queer, but we had as much work tryin’ to save an’ 
to feed the cattle an’ pigs as we did people, for if 
all the stock died off famine would follow sure. I 
remember totin’ com an’ fodder on my head to 
bunches o’ pigs, runnin’ around an’ squealin’ like 
mad, on rafts anchored to trees. When it wasn’t 
tragic it was funny. 

“ Those four years I spent down among the fever 


48 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

bayous o’ the Lower Mississippi were the hardest 
years o’ my life. Puttin’ courage into colored folk 
who’ve been hit by a disaster is like tryin’ to fill a 
sieve with water. I worked steadier’n I ever worked 
before, or since, and I never took a cent more’n just 
enough for my clothing an’ my grub, though the 
plantation owners were kinder an’ more hospitable 
than anybody’d ever believe. I did about every¬ 
thing durin’ that time, from buildin’ houses an’ 
plantin’ cotton to makin’ cradles for nigger pica- 
ninnies an’ totin’ an ol’ mammy on my back thirty- 
six miles to a place where there was a doctor. 

“ When the yellow fever epidemic broke out in 
Jacksonville, Fla., I hadn’t a cent to bless myself 
with, an’ I had to beat my way there like a hobo, 
ridin’ on the brake-beams.” 

“ Did they let you into the town, despite the 
quarantine? ” queried Gavin. 

“ I never got there! I saw a small bunch o’ Red 
Cross nurses—untrained colored women most of ’em 
were, for there wasn’t the trained nurse corps then 
that there is now—gettin’ off the train near Ma- 
clenny, so I hopped off an’ followed ’em. 

“ There was a row when I showed up, o’ course, 
but a man who wasn’t scared o’ Yellow Jack was 
right useful around the little temporary hospital 


A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 49 


they put up. That is, I was busy enough until I 
took the fever myself, but I didn’t have it bad. 

“ Just the same, to straighten up a bit, I came 
back north for a while, an’ went to work carpenterin’ 
an’ learnin’ something about general house-buildin’. 
I was findin’ out how to build staircases—a trickier 
job’n you’d think—when the Johnstown Flood came 
in 1889, with two thousand folks drowned by the 
burst or burned to death when the railroad bridge, 
to which hundreds had fled for safety, took fire, high 
above the ragin’ torrent. No need to tell you about 
it; every one knows that story. Then-” 

He broke off. 

“ There’s your father’s car cornin’ down the road 
now.” 

“ And you’ve been doing that sort of thing ever 
since, Mr. Thorsson? ” Gavin persisted, not wanting 
to lose a single one of his companion’s unusual ex¬ 
periences. 

“ On an’ off, averagin’ say about six or seven 
months in the year. In between whiles I follow up 
different trades, tryin’ to learn a new wrinkle every 
year; they all come in handy in trouble times, an’ 
I’ve seen all sorts o’ those! ” 

“ Such as? ” 

“Well, I’ve chased on the heels o’ West Indian 



50 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

hurricanes along the Carolina coasts an’ down on the 
Florida keys; I took a long trip on snowshoes once, 
carryin’ help to a minin’ town in Idaho, cut off by a 
snow-slide; I’ve fought fires a-plenty, the biggest 
I ever tackled bein’ when an oil-drillin’ section in 
Texas took ablaze an’ the very rivers were flamin’ 
with blazin’ oil; I’ve been at a dozen colliery dis¬ 
asters, I reckon; an’ I got down into Galveston just 
two hours before the tidal wave hit the place. 

“ One o’ the queerest jobs I ever had was helping 
to kill off locusts in a seventeen-year plague—the 
Army was called out to give a hand that time. Then 
I organized a gang once to wipe out the rats in Los 
Angeles durin’ a bubonic plague scare. There’s 
variety enough in the work, no doubt o’ that! 

“ Out o’ the forty-eight States o’ the Union, there’s 
only three where I haven’t done relief work, not 
that they’ve escaped trouble either, but because I 
was tied up somewhere else when the disasters hit 
’em.” 

“ You’ve never been abroad? ” 

“ I went to Cuba when the Spanish-American 
War started. I cleared out o’ there, though, afore 
very long. There was too much wranglin’ an’ fuss 
between the different societies who were doin’ relief 
work there, an’ who weren’t satisfied to hitch up to 


A KNIGHT IN OVERALLS 51 

the Red Cross. I’ll admit it wasn’t any too well 
organized at that time. 

“ I reckon I didn’t make myself any too popular 
in Havana,” Thorsson added, with a short laugh. 
“ I wanted to see the work get done an’ didn’t give 
a hoot who did it, but to my way o’ thinking those 
relief bunches were so interested in tryin’ to make 
a bigger show’n their rivals that they hadn’t any 
money left to spend on the soldiers. I told ’em so, 
straight ! But they were all interested in hushin’ 
up the scandal, an’ that fair made me mad. If I 
hadn’t got out, there’d have been a first-class row. 

“ I wouldn’t mention it at all now if it wasn’t that 
the jealousy an’ bad blood o’ that time is all gone 
by an’ forgotten. I’ve thought since that maybe it 
was a good thing after all. The Spanish-American 
War was a horrible example of our relief-work in¬ 
efficiency—very few people ever knew how rotten 
bad it was!—an’ it sure showed the Army an’ the 
people o’ the United States that we didn’t know the 
first durn thing about the proper handlin’ o’ war 
conditions. 

“ The best result o’ that war, to my way o’ 
thinkin’, was the organization of the American Na¬ 
tional Red Cross, in 1904, on an authoritative basis, 
backed up by Congress, headed by the President of 


52 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


the United States, supported by every man in the 
country who’s worth his salt, an’ functionin’ to the 
last notch in peace as well as war. I’m for it, an’ 
with it, first, last, an’ all the time! An’ I tell you, 
boy, that if there’s anything better under the Stars 
an’ Stripes than the American Red Cross, you’ve 
got to show it to me! ” 





Courtesy of Illustrated London Neivs. 

“At a Certain Station on the Line from the Front to the Base Hospital. ” 

This famous drawing by Frederick Villiers is regarded as the most truthful and poignant picture 
ever made of the American Red Cross at work in times of warfare. All nations bore tribute to 
the efficiency and devotion of the American Red Cross during the World War. 






Courtesy of American Red Cross. 

The Beginning. 



Courtesy of American Red Cross. 

The End. 



The Rescue. 


The Holocaust at Salem, Mass., Where the Red Cross 
Became the Fairy Godmother for Hundreds 
of Ruined Families. 
















CHAPTER III 


THE OLD CRUSADERS 

Stewart pushed back his chair, took a cigar from 
the box handed him by Oglethorpe, and nodded at 
the impatient Gavin. 

“ You’ve been asking a good many questions dur¬ 
ing dinner,” he began, “ and I’ve kept from giving 
you detailed answers to them, as you may have no¬ 
ticed. I’ve done that because I don’t want to 
prejudice you one way or the other before really 
giving you a fair idea of what the Red Cross is, and 
how it developed. Do you want me to tell you the 
whole story, or shall I skip the historical part and 
begin with modern times? ” 

“ Let us have it all, if you will,” replied the 
banker. “ A thing without its history is like a plant 
without its roots.” 

“ Exactly! ” Stewart nodded approval. 

“ Well, then,” he continued, “ I’ll tell it you in 
my own way, according to my own ideas. And first 
of all, I want to start by saying that it doesn’t seem 
quite fair to me to represent Red Cross work as if it 
were just an outcome of what we are pleased to call 

53 


54 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

‘ modern civilization.’ It isn’t anything of the kind, 
but, rather, goes back to the very dawn of Man’s 
history. 

“ Nor am I very partial to the modern over¬ 
emphasis on women’s work in the Red Cross. Nurs¬ 
ing is but a branch of it—though an all-important 
branch. None the less, nursing is only made possi¬ 
ble under well organized relief-work conditions, and 
the essentials of such organization have always been 
in the hands of men. 

“ Numbers sometimes give a disproportionate idea 
of values. Relief work after a big disaster requires 
one administrator, a dozen experienced relief-work¬ 
ers, a couple of score doctors, and several hundred 
nurses, but it would be absurd to suppose that the 
nurses were more important than the doctors and 
the relief-workers combined! 

“ I’m not trying to minimize the work of Red 
Cross nurses in the smallest degree—there is no 
greater admirer of their skill, their loyalty, and their 
devotion than myself—but I emphasize the work of 
men, Mr. Oglethorpe, because, to my mind, the men 
and boys of the United States aren’t so quick to 
realize their necessary share in Red Cross work as 
the women have been. And that’s a complete re¬ 
versal of history.” 


THE OLD CRUSADERS 55 

“ True enough/’ commented the banker. “ I never 
saw my duty until yesterday! ” 

“ As far back as I’ve been able to go in past rec¬ 
ords/’ Stewart resumed, “ I’ve found evidence that, 
in all times, men have been able to see the need for 
an * Organization of Merciful Heroes/ as an 
Egyptian papyrus calls it. I will admit, if you like, 
that it is only within comparatively recent times 
that the idea has been broached that such an organi¬ 
zation should be international. Yet it is an utterly 
false idea to represent our ancestors as barbaric and 
without scruple, and ourselves as civilized and con¬ 
siderate. 

“ In Egypt, for example, the earliest written rec¬ 
ords of humanity tell us that physicians were held 
in high esteem and paid by the state. Soldiers re¬ 
ceived medical care without charge. Surgeons ac¬ 
companied the armies, having a personal retinue at 
their disposal, and they were under orders to tend 
the wounded of the enemy as well as those of their 
own forces.” 

“ They were! ” exclaimed Gavin, surprised. 

“ By royal edict! It is true that this was done, 
mainly, for profit, for a prisoner of war became a 
slave and the Pharaohs of Egypt required an enor¬ 
mous amount of labor for their monumental works, 


56 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

such as the building of pyramids, the cutting oi 
rock-temples, and the tunnelling of tombs.” 

“ What was done with the badly wounded? ” 
queried the banker. 

“ Generally, they were killed outright so that they 
should not suffer. The old rules of battle—that 
there should be ‘ no giving nor taking of quarter ’— 
were not so dreadful as they seemed. One must 
remember that in the battles of old times, when 
clubs, arrows and swords were the only weapons 
used, a slight wound healed easily, a deep one was 
incurable. In those days, too, the soldiers formed 
a special caste, paid and supported by the state with 
the understanding that they should be ready to risk 
their lives, their families being maintained at public 
expense in the event of the bread-winner’s death on 
the battle-field. 

“ In the Trojan War there is abundant evidence 
that every soldier was taught First Aid, so far as 
arrow and spear wounds were concerned, and every 
chief—such as Achilles or Hector—was required to 
understand the use of rude surgery. Homer was not 
a physician, but his knowledge of the treatment of 
wounds would have made him an excellent ambu¬ 
lance surgeon. In Ancient Greece, the laws of Ly- 
curgus ordered medical men to the rear of the right 



THE OLD CRUSADERS 57 

wing during battles, and the leader of the right wing 
was instructed to withdraw, in case of imminent de¬ 
feat, in such a way as to leave the group of surgeons 
immune from attack. Here, already, is a type of 
hospital unit.” 

“ There were not any women nurses among the 
Ancient Greeks? ” Oglethorpe asked. 

“ Not so far as I’ve been able to find, though the 
wives and sisters of soldiers on both sides were per¬ 
mitted to come on the field after nightfall, and were 
never molested. 

“ Alexander the Great took surgeons and physi¬ 
cians along with his armies in elaborate Oriental 
style. Their work, it is true, was primarily devoted 
to the care of the officers, but there is little reason 
to doubt that they tended the soldiers also. There 
is still on record an accusation made against a Mac¬ 
edonian surgeon that he had neglected to instruct 
the common soldiers in what we know now as First 
Aid, showing that this was a customary procedure. 
In Sparta this was taught in the schools, showing 
how the Spartans realized its importance.” 

“ And we haven’t got to that yet in the United 
States, eh? ” 

“ Not yet, though the Junior Red Cross is begin¬ 
ning it.” 


58 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ Did the Greeks, too, give help to the enemy’s 
wounded?” 

“ I haven’t found any record of it, but their foes, 
the Persians, did. Xenophon states that Cyrus the 
Great commanded his surgeons to give the same at¬ 
tention to all wounded found on the field, irrespec¬ 
tive of nationality, but Cyrus was an unusual char¬ 
acter. It is possible, too, that this was with the 
value of slaves in view, or, at least, with an ex¬ 
change of prisoners.” 

“ Did they have internment camps for prisoners, 
then?” 

“No! Their contests were pitched battles be¬ 
tween armies. One or the other was generally defi¬ 
nitely defeated. The victorious general made his 
terms, but, very often, these were honorable terms 
and allowed the freeing of prisoners. You see, a 
conquered nation was required to pay tribute, and 
it was to the interest of the victor not to weaken 
a tributary too greatly.” 

“ And under the Romans? ” Oglethorpe asked. 

“ With the natural Roman gift for organization 
this early Red Cross spirit developed rapidly. Un¬ 
der the Republic the soldier was all-honored, and 
military surgeons were held in high esteem. Most 
of them, by the way, were trained in Egypt. The 


THE OLD CRUSADERS 59 

organization was very complete, each single legion 
of 3,000 men having one skilled surgeon and one 
physician. In each 4 double maniple 9 of 200 men 
there was an assistant surgeon and an assistant 
physician, constantly attached to the army. In war 
time there were a great many more, the cavalry, the 
heavy infantry, the light infantry and the ‘ legion 
of allies * each having its medical service. 

“ Under the Roman Empire, when the army be¬ 
came a more mercenary body, the medical unit be¬ 
came still more complete. Military hospitals were 
imperative, and one was built in every province. 
The great military hospital at Rome, built near the 
Praetorian Gate, had 400 beds. As spear wounds and 
such rarely took more than ten days to heal, the 
capacity of such a hospital was nearly 150,000 men 
a year. 

“ Nor was that all. Red Cross work, as such, was 
compulsory upon every Roman citizen. Convales¬ 
cent soldiers were billeted upon the homes of the 
people, and noble matrons vied with each other for 
the honor of having the care of a warrior who had 
been wounded in a victory. Even to the outermost 
bounds of the empire every family was required to 
care for wounded soldiers, and reimbursement for 
expenses was promptly made by the state if de- 


60 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

manded. Rights of Roman citizenship were granted 
to certain ‘ barbarians ' who had cared for a number 
of wounded Romans. 

“ Such work was not confined to the so-called 
civilized nations. Tacitus, speaking of the German 
barbaric tribes, declared that the wives of the sol¬ 
diers followed on the battle-field to dress the 
wounded. They seem, however, to have tended only 
such of their enemies as they deemed able to give 
ransom. Such women might chance to be killed by 
a stray arrow-shot, but no Roman soldier ever raised 
a sword upon them.” 

“ You certainly give a very different picture of 
those old battle-fields than what I had supposed, 
Mr. Stewart,” the banker commented, thoughtfully. 
“ I thought they were scenes of slaughter, and noth¬ 
ing else.” 

The Red Cross expert smiled. 

“ Humanity hasn't changed much,” he answered. 
“ There were brutes in war then just as there are 
now, but there were merciful generals and fair-deal¬ 
ing warriors, too. China seems to have been almost 
the only country where the sense of caring for the 
wounded did not exist, but a disregard for human 
life has always been a characteristic of the Celestial 
Kingdom. 


THE OLD CRUSADERS 


61 


“ The end of the Roman Empire, to go back to 
where I branched off, came only just a little while 
before the birth of Mohammed, and, at that time, 
the old Roman Empire had changed into two Chris¬ 
tian and mutually hostile powers, the papal power 
in Rome and the Byzantine power in Constanti¬ 
nople. Though this was the period of bitter hate 
and constant religious strife, the establishment of 
the ancient office of deacons, attached to each 
church, carried the Red Cross idea a little farther. 
The old world was made to understand that helping 
the wounded in war or the injured in a disaster was 
not only a matter for the state but also for the 
charity of individuals. 

“ Among Mohammed’s immediate followers there 
was little of this feeling. The Prophet’s fanatic 
teaching of the slaughter of all‘ dogs of unbelievers ’ 
evoked a similar fanaticism among the Christians, 
and, for nearly a century, mercy disappeared from 
the battle-fields. The Arabs were the first to yield, 
and their physicians tended Christians long before a 
Christian doctor would offer help to an ‘ infidel.’ 
At a later time, among the Saracens, Saladin’s 
chivalry was well known. He issued an order that 
Christian hospital units, officially recognized as such 
and wearing the Cross, should have free access be- 


62 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

hind the lines for the purpose of looking after their 
own wounded.” 

“What ever brought him to that?” questioned 
the banker, amazed. 

“ The work of the Knights Hospitallers in the 
main. They were the precursors of the Red Cross, 
and for eight hundred years held high the title which 
they were given by the King of Jerusalem: ‘ the 
Heroes of Humanity/ After them-” 

“ Not so fast, Mr. Stewart, if you please,” pro¬ 
tested Oglethorpe. “ I’ve only got a very vague idea 
about the Knights Hospitallers. Aren’t they the 
same as the Knights of Malta? ” 

“ To a very great extent. That is, one Order grew 
out of the other. But as I w T as going to say-” 

Here, again, the banker interrupted. He was of a 
persistent turn of mind, and never liked to leave 
anything unexplained. 

“ Have you any reason for sliding over the history 
of the Knights Hospitallers? ” he asked. 

Stewart looked confused. 

“ It happens to be my hobby, and I’m afraid of 
boring people,” was his reply. “ It’s hard to tell it 
properly without giving some details, and the origin 
of the Order is all mixed up with the history of the 
Crusades. That’s a life study in itself, and people 




THE OLD CRUSADERS 


63 


aren’t interested in the Crusades any more. Most 
of us Americans don’t even know what they were 
about.” 

He turned to Gavin: 

“ Do you? ” 

“ Oh, sure! ” declared Gavin, who never doubted 
of himself. “ They were—they were-” he hesi¬ 

tated, “ a sort of armed pilgrimage to get hold of 
the Holy Land.” 

“ For whom? ” 

“ Eh? ” Gavin was puzzled. “ Why, for—for the 
pilgrims, I suppose.” 

Stewart shook his head. 

“ From whom was Palestine to be taken? Do you 
know that? ” 

“ From the Saracens,” returned the boy, confi¬ 
dently. 

“‘ Saracen ’ is a word that doesn’t mean much,” 
commented the Red Cross man. “And why did the 
Crusaders want it? ” 

“ Because the Saracens wouldn’t let Christian pil¬ 
grims go to Jerusalem.” 

“ It wasn’t so simple as that, my boy. And you 
haven’t got the main facts right, either. The First 
Crusade, while summoned by the Pope, was the re¬ 
sult of an appeal from the Byzantine Emperor. As 




64 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


for pilgrimages, the Arabs very generously allowed 
Christian pilgrims to go to Jerusalem and even 
granted a Christian king the claim of a ‘ symbolic 
royalty 9 in Jerusalem. But what makes that period 
especially interesting to me always has been that 
the First Crusade had as one of its chief aims the 
maintenance of a Hospital of the Cross in the terri¬ 
tory of the Crescent.” 

“ I never heard that,” declared Oglethorpe, “ or, 
if I ever did, I’d forgotten it.” 

“ Likely enough you never read about it, for the 
Crusades deal with such a startling and sensational 
period of human history that the original causes are 
often overlooked in the vivid glare of the actual 
happenings. But I’ll give you a few of the main 
lines of causation, if you want them. A good deal 
of this will be new to you, Gavin,” he added, turning 
to the boy, “ but your father may remember most 
of it when recalled to his memory. 

“ The origin of the bitter conflict which raged 
between East and West for over ten centuries is 
found in the separation of the Roman Empire into 
two divisions, with capitals at Rome and at Con¬ 
stantinople, respectively, after the death of Con¬ 
stantine the Great. The perpetual hostility of rival 
emperors and rival patriarchs—kept their coun- 


THE OLD CRUSADERS 65 

tries in a turmoil, and the natural racial hostility of 
East and West fanned the flames. 

“ The final collapse of Pagan Rome did not end 
the rivalry and the hate, it only changed its char¬ 
acter. The Pope, at Rome, became the real ruler 
of the West. The Byzantine Emperor and the Pa¬ 
triarch of Constantinople were the rulers of the 
East. The never-ceasing strife over precedence and 
doctrine between the Pope and the Patriarch re¬ 
sulted in the dividing of the Early Church into two 
great bodies, Catholic and Orthodox. That division 
exists to this day, the Greek and Russian Catholic 
Churches not owning obedience to the Pope. 

“ Shortly after the death of Pope Gregory the 
Great came the sudden rise of Moslem power, dating 
from the Hegira, or Flight of Mohammed from 
Mecca in 622. Fifteen years later, Jerusalem fell 
into the hands of Omar, the great Arab conqueror, 
who built the Mosque of Omar, containing the rock 
which is regarded by Moslems as that from which 
Mohammed ascended to Heaven, and by Jews as 
that of the proposed sacrifice of Isaac. 

“ Mohammedans also revere David, Solomon, and 
Christ as being great prophets, and hence Omar re¬ 
spected Jerusalem as an especially Holy Place. As 
you are probably aware, Mr. Oglethorpe, the sane- 


66 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

tity of holy places is piously—even fanatically—ob¬ 
served by all true Moslems. The Arab hosts re¬ 
frained from pillaging Jerusalem, the Caliph Omar 
permitted Christian institutions—including the Hos¬ 
pital—to continue their work unmolested, and he 
gave free access to the Holy City both to Christian 
and Jewish pilgrims.” 

“ That was fair enough! ” declared Gavin. “ I 
hadn’t any idea they could be so decent. I thought 
the Saracens cut off the head of every Christian they 
met! ” 

“ By no means. The Moslems held the Christians 
to be infidels and enemies, certainly, but they fought 
fair, and they respected Orders belonging to any re¬ 
ligion. Bodies of Christian monks and colonies of 
hermits remained unharmed in Egypt during the 
first period of Mohammedan rule, so long as they 
refrained from taking up arms. Even more remark¬ 
able, I think, was the fact that, when Charlemagne 
was accepted by the Patriarch of Jerusalem as Chris¬ 
tian Emperor of the West and Patron of the Holy 
Places, the great Caliph, Haroun-al-Raschid, con¬ 
firmed it.” 

“ The caliph of the Arabian Nights’ Entertain¬ 
ments? ” queried Gavin, interrupting. 

“ The very same. Haroun-al-Raschid not only 


6? 


THE OLD CRUSADERS 

permitted the patriarch to send the keys of the city 
to Charlemagne, but he actually allowed him to as¬ 
sume the title of ‘ Symbolic Ruler of Jerusalem/ 
though this dignity did not convey any territorial 
rights. 

“ Charlemagne responded by sending an envoy 
with gifts to the Caliph, and he lavishly endowed 
and enlarged the little hospital, reestablishing it un¬ 
der the name of the Hospital of St. John (the Bap¬ 
tist) in Jerusalem. A point of great interest— 
Charlemagne ordered that Moslems should be 
admitted to the hospital, although Jews were 
excluded. 

“ For two centuries this Hospital of the Cross re¬ 
mained unharmed in the City of the Crescent. 
Monarchs and princes from all countries of Europe 
sent gifts to it, and pilgrims by the thousand added 
their contributions. In later times, whole provinces 
were bestowed upon the Church of the Holy Sep¬ 
ulchre and the Hospital of St. John in Jerusalem, 
thus rendering the Patriarch of Jerusalem an inde¬ 
pendent power within a Moslem city. Let me re¬ 
mind you again that the Arab caliphs, many of 
whom were great patrons of literature and the arts, 
not only tolerated but respected the religious and 
Red Cross work of the Christians in Jerusalem.” 


68 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ What changed the situation so suddenly as to 
bring on war? ” the banker queried. 

“ The internal quarrels of Christendom. The 
hatred between papal Rome and Byzantine Con¬ 
stantinople grew ever more and more bitter. Rome 
had the unquestioned priority, Constantinople had 
the riches and the power. The Byzantine Emperor 
put in his claim to be recognized as Patron of the 
Holy Places, instead of the weakling successors of 
Charlemagne. Groups of Christian monks, repre¬ 
senting the two factions, fought continually in the 
streets of Jerusalem and secret murders were fre¬ 
quent, rendering it difficult for Moslem soldiers to 
keep the peace. 

“ A fanatic caliph, Hakim Biamrillah, declaring 
that the Christians were making of the Holy City an 
unholy place, destroyed the Church of the Holy 
Sepulchre and the Hospital of St. John in 1010, and 
declared the Frankish symbolic protectorate at an 
end. The Patronage of the Holy Places—little more 
than an empty name—was put in the hands of the 
Byzantine Emperor, and, eleven years later, a group 
of merchants from Amalfi rebuilt the hospital, 
though on a small scale. 

“ Then came the great conquest of the Arab 
caliphates by the Seljukian Turks. The caliphates 


THE OLD CRUSADERS 


69 


had declined in power, and, consequently, were an 
easy prey to the Turko-Tartar hordes which fell 
upon Persia, reduced Bagdad, and, in 1071, captured 
Jerusalem. Rude of temperament and impatient of 
opposition, the Turks dealt roughly with the ever- 
quarreling monks and barred the way to pilgrims. 
The haughty Patriarch was compelled to flee to 
Cyprus. Yet even the Turks respected the Hospital 
of St. John in Jerusalem. The one and only tie that 
remained between Christianity and the Holy City 
was the link of the Red Cross. 

“ The Turkish conquest changed the entire aspect 
of affairs in the Eastern Mediterranean, though the 
Europeans did not understand it. They could not, 
for ethnology was an unknown science in those days. 
We realize the situation better now. 

“ The Arabs, originally a southern, desert-dwelling 
people, felt more at home in the hot regions border¬ 
ing the Desert, and extended their empire easily and 
swiftly over Asia Minor, North Africa, and southern 
Spain; they made little effort to subdue Europe 
after their one defeat at the hands of Charles Martel. 
The Turks, coming from the cold, high plateaus and 
mountains of Turkestan, were satisfied with mere 
garrisons in the hot countries, for ever their eyes 
were set on the conquest of Europe, their chief de- 


70 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

sire being Constantinople. Furthermore, being 
brigands by nature and habit, the Turks understood 
the importance of controlling all overland trade 
routes from the Orient, thus enriching themselves 
and causing the impoverishment of countries bor¬ 
dering on the Mediterranean.’ 5 

Oglethorpe leaned forward. 

“ Let me see if I have caught the drift of your 
argument, Mr. Stewart,” he interposed. “ From 
what you have said, I judge there were three forces 
beginning to work simultaneously in Europe: the 
merchants, who wanted the trade routes opened; 
the kings and nobles, who saw the time coming when 
they would have to defend themselves against a 
Turkish invasion by way of Constantinople; and the 
papacy, which saw its power defied, its pilgrims at¬ 
tacked, and its patronage given to its Byzantine 
rival. Is that it?” 

“ Exactly! You’ve caught the essential things. 
But there were two other causes operating as well. 
The weakening of the Arab caliphates had already 
started the Christians on a campaign to retake 
Moslem territory. Calabria and Sardinia had been 
won back for the Cross, more than half of Sicily had 
been reconquered, and the Moors in Spain were be¬ 
ing slowly driven southward. These achievements 


THE OLD CRUSADERS 71 

had bred confidence. Not understanding racial 
strains—lumping every kind of Moslem as a ‘ Sara¬ 
cen ’—the Christians did not realize the vast differ¬ 
ence in warrior-spirit between the Tartar Turk and 
the Semitic Arab. Furthermore, Western Christen¬ 
dom resented the fact that the new power in Islam 
had broken up the tacit agreement with the Arabs, 
in regard to Palestine, which had endured for more 
than four centuries. These five causes underlie the 
whole story of the Crusades. 

“ What had been merely an exasperation changed 
into a positive menace a few months after the cap¬ 
ture of Jerusalem by the Turks, when, at the battle 
of Manzikert, the Byzantine army suffered a crush¬ 
ing defeat, losing, at a single blow, nearly the whole 
of Asia Minor. 

“ Emperor Michael VII humbled himself to ap¬ 
peal to Pope Gregory VII for help; the Pope agreed 
to send reinforcements to Constantinople on the con¬ 
dition that the Eastern Church should make its sub¬ 
mission to the Western. This offer was evaded, and 
the Normans, who had already been gathered as a 
fighting force, seized Calabria and the rest of Sicily 
for themselves. Ten years later, another Byzantine 
emperor, Alexius Comnenus, one of the ablest of his 
line, appealed to Count Baldwin of Flanders for 


72 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

help, and afterwards begged for aid to Pope Urban 
II, half-agreeing to submit to the papacy. The Pope 
distrusted the Emperor, but agreed to send an army, 
with the secret intention of turning the issue to the 
advantage of Western Christendom. I’m sorry to 
have to give you all these details, but, otherwise, you 
won’t be able to make head or tail of what happened 
afterwards. 

“ You can see at once, Mr. Oglethorpe, that Em¬ 
peror Alexius and Pope Urban II had two different 
ends in view. The former had asked for reinforce¬ 
ments to enable him to drive back the Turks; the 
latter saw a means to conquer Palestine for the 
West, and thereby to force the Eastern Church into 
submission. Any victory, therefore, would be re¬ 
garded by the Emperor as a restoration of his terri¬ 
tory; it would be viewed by the Pope and the 
Western Knights as an extension of the Holy Roman 
Empire. 

“ The time was ripe for a Crusade. The Paladins 
of Charlemagne and such men as Robert Guiscard 
and the Free Lance adventurers of the eleventh 
century had already unwittingly founded the mili¬ 
tary side of chivalry; the troubadours gave it a 
romantic flavor. Knighthood, as such, was shaping 
into definite form. The younger sons of noble fami- 


THE OLD CRUSADERS 


73 


lies thirsted for opportunities to show their prowess 
and for new territories wherefrom to carve out king¬ 
doms of their own. The Normans had shown them 
the way. 

“ At the same time, the years immediately pre¬ 
ceding the First Crusade had been marked by wide¬ 
spread famines, notably in Flanders and Lorraine. 
Pestilence had followed. Misery prevailed in 
Europe. Relief of some sort was imperative, and 
the fabled Orient was supposed to be full of treas¬ 
ure. Thus, nobles and peasants alike were eager 
to get away from their homelands and avid for 
adventure. 

“ The preaching of the First Crusade fitted in 
with every element of the time. It held out, to 
knight and serf alike, the hope of immediate gain; 
it fulfilled the romantic and adventurous ideal of the 
age; it rang loudly in the ears of fighting men; it 
offered to the credulous the certainty of Heaven; 
and, perhaps most determinative of all, it wiped out, 
at a single blow, every debt, every crime, every fear 
of punishment. A Crusader was automatically 
freed of all his misdeeds, as well as absolved of all 
his sins, the moment he took the Cross. With every 
high ideal and every base motive thus welded to¬ 
ward the attainment of a single goal, the preaching 


74 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

of the Crusade could not but succeed. In fact, it 
surpassed all bounds. 

“ It has been well said: ‘ Alexius may almost be 
compared to a magician who has uttered a charm 
to summon a ministering spirit, and who finds him¬ 
self, instead, surrounded on the instant by legions 
of uncontrollable demons/ 

“ The unbridled enthusiasm spread like an un¬ 
checked fire. High-minded prelates, ambitious no¬ 
bles, blood-hungry barons, romantic knights, loyal 
men-at-arms, mercenary soldiers, reckless adven¬ 
turers, fugitive monks, escaped serfs, harried bank¬ 
rupts, tramps, criminals, and camp-followers of 
every description responded frantically to the im¬ 
passioned and revivalistic preaching of the Crusade. 

“ More easily set aflame and in more immediate 
need, the people of the poorer classes were the first 
to respond. Under the fiery oratory of Peter the 
Hermit, five great divisions of ‘ Pauper Crusaders ’ 
were formed. Three of these were cut to pieces in 
their march across Hungary, partly because of their 
insane excesses in Jew-baiting, more than 10,000 
Jews being slaughtered in cold blood by one division 
alone. Others aroused the fury of the inhabitants of 
the regions through which they passed by their ex¬ 
cesses, for there were no leaders to hold them in 


THE OLD CRUSADERS 75 

hand. The German bands marked their whole line 
of passage by hideous atrocities, and thousands paid 
the penalty. 

“ Two divisions, under Walter the Penniless and 
Peter the Hermit, respectively, managed to reach 
Constantinople with only half their number dead 
on the way. These were led across the Bosphorus 
and into Asia Minor by Walter the Penniless. Such 
a draggle-tail host was but a mouthful for the war¬ 
rior Turks. In less than six weeks, scarcely a hand¬ 
ful of survivors remained, and acres of bones were 
the sole melancholy result of the Pauper Crusade.” 

“ How many perished, do you suppose? ” Ogle¬ 
thorpe queried. 

“ At least a quarter of a million men, counting 
those who were slain in Hungary or died on the 
way. But while this mad, undirected march of the 
Paupers was proceeding to its doom, the other sec¬ 
tion of this First Crusade, known as the Princes’ 
Crusade, was being organized by experienced lead¬ 
ers and was setting forth on its way. 

“ Numberless individual bands streamed east¬ 
ward, but three large divisions easily outranked the 
rest in importance. These were the crusaders of 
Lorraine, under Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother 
Baldwin; the Norman Crusaders under Bohemund of 


76 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

Otranto and his nephew Tancred; and the Crusaders 
of Provencal France, under Raymond of Toulouse 
and Bishop Adhemar, the papal commissary. Un¬ 
der their banners, some 200,000 men gathered at 
Constantinople. It was a rough and reckless host, 
hard to hold in order, but containing a goodly pro¬ 
portion of picked fighting men. 

“ The Byzantine Emperor, at his wits’ ends to 
know what to do with those proud and independent 
princes, forced them to do him unwilling homage, a 
sad mistake in diplomacy. It is worthy of note that 
Godfrey of Bouillon was the first to agree to 
Alexius’ arrogant demands, and that he made the 
very remarkable stipulation that ‘ if the troops of 
the Emperor are afraid to march, at least every man 
of skill (physician) in the Empire must accompany 
the Soldiers of the Cross, for their knowing of 
strange diseases in those lands unknown to us.’ 

“ Alexius, realizing that while victory might be 
embarrassing, still it would serve his purpose better 
than defeat, utilized his cunning and Oriental di¬ 
plomacy to sow dissensions in the new-born Turkish 
Empire. While not entirely successful, Alexius’ 
policy rendered possible the march of the Crusaders 
across Syria without serious opposition. 

“ I will spare you the record of the political com- 


THE OLD CRUSADERS 77 

plications which followed the capture of the impor¬ 
tant cities of Nicsea and Antioch, and the sensa¬ 
tional and furious quarreling between the three lead¬ 
ers, leading to personal combats innumerable. At 
the last, Bohemund retained Antioch, Raymond 
sailed for Tripoli, and, a little later, Godfrey led the 
rest of the Crusaders against Jerusalem. 

“ The siege, which lasted a month long, is famous 
in the annals of military history, and the slaughter 
was terrific. At the last, by heroism unexampled, 
by the most unbelievable endurance under the burn¬ 
ing heat of a July sun, the Crusaders rode into the 
city, weary, battle-spent, blood-bespattered, but 
hysterical with joy. The supreme goal was achieved, 
and, after nearly five centuries of infidel rule, the 
Holy City of Christendom was once more in the 
hands of Christians. 

“ The first man to greet the ecstatic Knights was 
Gerard of the Red Cross, prior of the Hospital of 
St. John, whose head, by miracle, was still upon his 
shoulders. Of him there is a tale to tell! ” 


CHAPTER IV 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 

“ With Gerard and the Siege of Jerusalem/’ Stew¬ 
art continued, “ begins the story of the Knights 
Hospitallers, the true forerunners of the Red Cross. 
Let me anticipate history enough to say that for 
more than eight hundred years there has never been 
a time when the Knights of the Order of St. John 
of Jerusalem have not been engaged in Red Cross 
work.” 

“ Eight hundred years! ” exclaimed the banker. 

“ Actually more than that. While it may not be 
quite accurate to admit the claim that the Order of 
Knights Hospitallers was founded by King Anti- 
ochus, in the days of Maccabees, there is no doubt 
that it carried on a tradition established at that 
time. 

“ It is sure that Simon Maccabieus established a 
hospital in Jerusalem about 150 b. c., and it is on 
record that Herod the Great visited it. In writing 
of the destruction of Jerusalem, under Titus, in 
70 a. d., it is stated by Josephus—who was an eye¬ 
witness—that ‘ for reasons of mercy certain build- 

78 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 79 

ings were left untouched.’ It seems reasonable to 
suppose—remembering Roman views as to military 
hospitals—that this charitable institution was one 
of those spared. It was closed only for a few months 
during the Persecution under Decius, it escaped the 
Persecution under Diocletian, and it was established 
on a solid foundation by Constantine the Great. 
The Caliph Omar respected it, as I have told you, 
and the foundation was enlarged by Charlemagne in 
807. Destroyed in 1010 by Caliph Hakim Biamril- 
lah, it was restored in 1021 by the piety of certain 
merchants of Amalfi, who put it in the hands of a 
body of Benedictine monks. 

“ During the great siege of the First Crusade, 
Gerard, the Benedictine prior of the Hospital of 
St. John, aided the Christians secretly. When the 
Crusaders entered the city, Godfrey of Bouillon re¬ 
warded the Hospital by confirming to it the site on 
which it was built, and granted it an immense palace 
which stood beside it, as well as two bake-houses.” 

“ Why bake-houses? ” queried Gavin. 

“ Ah,” said Stewart smiling, “ that’s a queer 
story! The old tale tells that Prior Gerard was 
threatened by the Turks with the destruction of the 
Hospital, unless he assisted the Moslem cause. He 
agreed with apparent willingness, hurried to the 



80 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


walls of the city, and vigorously joined the ranks of 
the stone-throwers. The Moslems were watching 
him closely, however, and they found that he was 
hurling loaves of bread at the invaders instead of 
stones. A pile of loaves was found beside him. He 
was promptly seized and brought before the Turkish 
Governor. 

“ Gerard, in his own defence, declared that it was 
not his fault if God intervened and changed the 
stones into bread, and demanded that the so-called 
loaves should be produced as evidence. They were 
brought to the seat of justice, and found to be stones. 
Gerard then urged the Governor to accompany him 
to the walls, and asked him to choose a stone him¬ 
self, one about which there could be no trickery. 
The Governor did so. Gerard then took the stone 
chosen and hurled it with all his force at the attack¬ 
ing Crusaders. No sooner had it fallen to the ground 
than a soldier picked it up and began to munch it 
contentedly. While falling through the air the stone 
had turned into bread. Amazed at this miracle, the 
Moslems drew away in awe and dared no longer in¬ 
terfere with the ‘ infidel marabout/ 

“ Upon the entrance of the Crusaders into the 
Holy City, Godfrey of Bouillon was immediately 
elected as 4 Advocate ’ of Jerusalem—he declined to, 


81 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 

take the title of 4 king ’ in the city of Christ—and 
proceeded to rule with an iron hand. Gerard, true 
to the traditions of the Hospital, admitted the Mos¬ 
lems wounded during the siege, in spite of the thun¬ 
dering denunciations of Arnulf, the newly elected 
Patriarch. 

“ Prior Gerard had a forceful personality, and the 
Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem was a name to 
conjure with. Treasures untold began to pour in: 
royal jewels, lands, even whole provinces at a time. 

“ During Gerard’s lifetime, Pope Paschal II for¬ 
mally instituted the ‘ Knights of the Order of the 
Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.’ At the begin¬ 
ning, it was a monastic nursing order with a mem¬ 
bership of nobles, vowed to poverty, and little else. 
Hospitals were soon established in the coast towns 
of Palestine and Syria. 

“ Almost immediately, however, it became evident 
that the Knights Hospitallers must be prepared to 
defend their institutions from the Turks, a thing the 
warlike noble-born Knights were only too ready to 
do. At the same time, they undertook the armed 
defence of pilgrims traversing hostile territory on 
their way to Jerusalem. This required the estab¬ 
lishment of forts, military garrisons, and stations 
of supply. 


82 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ Within twenty years, the military side of the 
Order became so highly developed, so many famous 
knights flocked to its banner, such vast treasure was 
available for purposes of war as well as of relief, 
that the Knights Hospitallers found themselves, al¬ 
most unavoidably, one of the great driving forces in 
the later Crusades. 

“ Unlike their powerful rivals, the Knights Tem¬ 
plars, the Hospitallers remained steadily faithful to 
their original missions: the rescue of the wounded 
on the battle-field, the healing of the sick in times 
of pestilence, the sending of relief to victims of dis¬ 
aster, and the maintenance of the pilgrimage routes. 

“ A large part of their enormous wealth was spent 
in the building of hospitals, in the education and 
sustentation of learned physicians and surgeons— 
who were accepted as the equals of the Knights— 
and in the providing of nourishing food (white 
bread) for the sick. It was one of the rules of the 
Order that any sick man had the right to command, 
the Knights—though nobles or princes in their own 
right—were vowed to obey. 

“ It would take all night to give you even the 
briefest account of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 
which lasted for eighty-seven years, and of the hap¬ 
less Second Crusade—brought about by the fall of 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 83 

Edessa—the failure of which was followed by the 
Jehad, or Moslem Holy War under Saladin, which 
resulted in the loss of the Holy City.” 

“ Was Saladin a Turk or an Arab, Mr. Stewart? ” 
questioned Gavin. 

“ Neither, my boy. He was a Kurd, allied to the 
Turks by race but Persian by language; the repre¬ 
sentative of a hardy, vigorous race. Saladin was a 
man of true greatness, one of the outstanding figures 
of his tune. He burned with desire to free the 
Mosque of Omar or Aksa, in Jerusalem, from the 
Christian grasp, and it was in the true ‘ crusading ’ 
spirit that he led his fanatic hosts from Egypt 
against Palestine. 

“ The Knights Templars and the Knights Hos¬ 
pitallers fought him savagely on repeated fields, but 
Saladin drove them back, and at last won his way 
into Jerusalem. Thereupon he slew, in cold blood, 
every one of the Knights Templars he laid hands 
on, and massacred, likewise, every Knight Hospital¬ 
ler who was found bearing arms. None the less, he 
allowed ten of the Nursing Knights of the Hospital¬ 
lers to remain in charge of the Hospital of St. John, 
and he granted permission for the others to estab¬ 
lish a hospital in Acre.” 

“ That was true chivalry! ” 


84 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ It would take an endless time,” Stewart con¬ 
tinued, “ to tell you the stories of the Third Cru¬ 
sade, with Richard Cceur-de-Lion at its head, in 
which Acre was recaptured and a truce was made 
with Saladin by which the way of pilgrimage to 
Jerusalem was reopened; of the Fourth Crusade, 
which started against Egypt, was diverted by the 
treacherous politics of the merchants of Venice to 
the storming of Constantinople, thus setting Cru¬ 
sader against Christian and which ended in the cre¬ 
ation of a Latin power in the Byzantine Empire; 
of the Fifth Crusade, also against Egypt, which won 
Damietta but was driven back before Cairo; and of 
the Sixth Crusade, which was no Crusade at all, but 
merely an armed advance, cloaking a shrewd ne¬ 
gotiation with the Paynim, by which Frederick II 
of Sicily, in 1229, secured Nazareth, Bethlehem, and 
Jerusalem without striking a blow. In this treaty, 
the Knights Hospitallers played a part, for their 
aims were ever more for charity than for conquest. 

“ As before, the advent of a new power in Asia 
and in Egypt wrenched away the prize. As the 
Arabs had given place to the Turks, and the Turks 
to the Kurds, so the Kurdish dynasties were forced 
to give place to the Turkish Mamelukes in Egypt 
and to the Mongols in Asia Minor. In 1244, Jeru- 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 85 

salem was captured by a Mameluke general, and 
it remained thereafter in Moslem hands until a few 
years ago, when it was taken back by the Chris¬ 
tians.” 

“ When? ” queried Gavin, surprised at the state¬ 
ment. 

“At the end of the World War, when Allied troops 
entered Jerusalem, under a British general,” his 
father explained. 

“ The loss of the Holy City in 1244,” Stewart 
resumed, “ brought about the Seventh and Eighth 
Crusades, under St. Louis of France. These efforts, 
valiant as they were, and carried on in the true cru¬ 
sading spirit, achieved nothing. St. Louis was taken 
prisoner in the first of these Crusades and died in 
Tunis on his way to the second one. 

“ In 1291, Acre, the last stronghold of the West in 
Asia Minor, was taken by the Mamelukes and the 
Christian occupation of the Holy Land came to an 
end. The last man to be carried on board ship, 
seriously wounded, was Jean de Villiers, Grand 
Master of the Knights Hospitallers. Yet, in less 
than ten years, the Hospitallers had reestablished 
themselves on the coast of Syria, had succeeded in 
obtaining special privileges for the Nursing Knights, 
and had opened another hospital in Smyrna. 


86 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ Before we bid good-bye to the Crusades, though, 
there’s a little story of the Hospitallers which is 
worth the telling, for it deals with a phase of Red 
Cross work which once had terrible poignancy, but 
which exists no more. You have heard, of course, 
of the Children’s Crusade? ” 

Oglethorpe nodded, but Gavin shook his head and 
leaned forward eagerly. 

“ I never did! ” he said. “A Children’s Crusade? ” 

“ Yes! A very famous one! In 1212, a shepherd 
boy named Stephen, with a precocious gift for 
oratory, travelled afoot over a large part of France, 
preaching a Crusade on his own account. He de¬ 
clared—not without truth—that the Crusades had 
failed because popes and princes had used them for 
political ends, instead of following the spirit of the 
Cross, and he prophesied that Christ Himself would 
march with the Army of Innocence, once it had 
reached the Holy Land, and that the infidels would 
throw down their arms and surrender without a 
battle. 

“ He set the boyhood of France aflame, and led 
some 15,000 boys (and some hundreds of girls 
dressed as boys) to Marseilles, promising them that 
as soon as they arrived on the seashores the waters 
would divide for them as the Red Sea had done for 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 


87 


Moses and Aaron, and the Children’s Host would 
march dry-shod to the Holy Land. Stephen had 
never seen the sea, and thought it was not much 
wider than a large river. 

“ Alas for their childish enthusiasm! The waves 
of the Mediterranean paid no heed to Stephen’s 
bidding. The children, homeless, hungry, footsore, 
exhausted, despairing, were pitiful to see. 

“ The people of Marseilles, partly to get rid of so 
many extra mouths to feed, partly in the super¬ 
stitious hope that a miracle might happen if the 
youthful pilgrims reached the Holy Land, subscribed 
some money for their transport. But responsible 
ship-owners refused to have any part in such a hare¬ 
brained scheme, declaring that the children should 
be sent back to their homes. Stephen persisted, and 
some evil-minded ship-captains, of the low types 
which hang around some Mediterranean ports, 
agreed to take the money and to transport the chil¬ 
dren.” 

“ Why evil-minded? ” queried Gavin. 

“ Because,” Stewart dropped his voice impres¬ 
sively, “ their only intention was to sell the little 
pilgrims to Barbary pirates, Algerian slave-dealers, 
or Turkish masters. Cargo after cargo of these 
Christian children was landed at Algiers, Tunis or 


88 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


Tripoli. None of them reached the Holy Land; 
most of them died under the whips and cruelties of 
their masters. 

“ At the same time that Stephen was preaching 
his Crusade in France, Nicolas of Cologne gathered 
an army of 20,000 children, in the Rhine provinces, 
repeating Stephen’s prophecy that the sea would 
open before their feet. Imbued with the same faith, 
they set forth and marched toward the coasts of 
Italy. Very little is known of their fate, but they, 
too, were sold into slavery, largely by Greek traders 
in the pay of the powerful merchant princes of 
Venice.” 

“ It was an abominable thing! ” Oglethorpe burst 
out. 

“ It was! But at the orders of Garin de Montaigu, 
Grand Master of the Hospitallers, part of the treas¬ 
ure was put aside from the revenues of the Order 
and put into the hands of special envoys, to be used 
for ransom-money. The Knights visited all the 
ports on the shores of North Africa where the child- 
pilgrims had been sold, and offered ransoms for 
them. For a good many years after that, Knights 
Hospitallers might be found standing by the slave- 
marts, ready with a ransom in case any Child Cru¬ 
sader should be put up for sale.” 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 89 

“ Splendid! ” declared the banker. “ That’s work 
worth while! Did they keep it up? ” 

“ For a long time. In later centuries, the Order 
of Trinitarians took up the duty. Indeed, many 
Trinitarian monks took vows to enter slavery vol¬ 
untarily. They gave themselves in ransom to set 
others free.” 

“That’s finer yet! ” affirmed Oglethorpe, enthu¬ 
siastically. 

“ The Order of Knights Hospitallers,” Stewart 
went on, “ while never flinching in their charitable 
duties, suffered the natural result of becoming rich 
too suddenly. They got into trouble with the 
Popes, they aroused the jealousy of other Orders, 
especially their powerful rivals, the Knights Tem¬ 
plars, they were rightfully accused of a lust for 
power, and the Knights militant section of the Hos¬ 
pitallers became an exclusive and aristocratic body, 
living luxurious lives in times of peace. 

“ As fighters, however, they were foremost on 
every field, comparable only to the Knights Tem¬ 
plars in dash and courage. In the sack of Jerusalem, 
325 Knights were slain, and only sixteen escaped. 
In the Crusade of St. Louis, in Egypt, all the Hos¬ 
pitallers attached to his army were slain but five. 
The Hospitallers joined with the Knights Templars 


90 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

to form the principal Christian barrier against the 
onrush of Mongol hordes. 

“ Later, when the Knights Templars were disbanded 
—on false charges of heresy and immorality—much 
of their property was given to the Knights of the 
Hospital. The Hospitallers had been chased from 
Jerusalem to Cyprus, from Cyprus to Rhodes, and 
finally to Malta. Yet, despite all the attacks made 
on them for their overweening ambition, none the 
less their unceasing care for the sick and wounded 
shed a glory on them which blotted out their less 
worthy deeds. As the ‘ Heroes of Humanity 9 they 
won the esteem of the Early Middle Ages.” 

“ I believe that to be true,” the banker agreed. 
“ Good lasts longer than bad. Unselfish work will 
always be appreciated at the last—though some¬ 
times it has a long time to wait! ” 

“ When, in later centuries,” Stewart continued, 
“ the Hospitallers became known as the Knights of 
Rhodes, and, still later, as the Knights of Malta, 
they became the overlords of Levantine commerce 
and one of the links between the East and the West. 
This brought them under constant criticism from 
certain of the Popes and from the more bigoted sec¬ 
tion of Christendom. Because of their trade friend¬ 
ship with the infidels, they were accused of heresy, 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 91 

and even of atheism. Yet no one denied that the 
Knights continued to maintain hospitals, to spend 
large sums of money in ransoms for slaves, to harry 
Paynim pirates, to protect Christian commerce, and 
to guard the pilgrim routes, as of old. 

“ In times of disaster they were promptly to the 
fore, and their relief work in aid of the sufferers 
from the great earthquake in Messina and Calabria, 
in 1783—as in the earthquake of Lisbon thirty years 
before—did not vary in any essential character from 
well-organized Red Cross work of the present day. 
The Order still exists, though most of its work has 
been taken over by the International Committee of 
Red Cross societies, which, I might add, works hand 
in hand with the Red Crescent, just as the Hos¬ 
pitallers did eight centuries ago.” 

“ It's curious,” remarked the banker, musingly, 
“ that there weren’t any women interested in all that 
nursing work.” 

“ There were! That was one point where the 
Knights Hospitallers differed radically from every 
other monastic order. They admitted women as as¬ 
sociates—at the beginning. A woman of noble birth, 
Alix, established the Hospital of St. Mary Magda¬ 
lene, for women, in Jerusalem, in connection with 
the Hospital of St. John. The Women Hospitallers 



92 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

did visiting nursing, too, though that side of the 
work was necessarily abandoned when Jerusalem was 
taken by Saladin. A house of that Order still exists 
in Spain. Thus there were Red Cross nurses, as well 
as Red Cross relief-workers, more than seven hun¬ 
dred years ago.” 

“ Did they really wear the Red Cross? ” queried 
Gavin. 

“At the beginning, the costume of the Knights 
Hospitallers was a black mantle with a large white 
or silver cross on the shoulder; in active service, and 
when wearing armor, the mantle was exchanged for 
a red surcoat with a white cross. The English 
Knights of the Order wore a white surcoat with a 
red cross—the Cross of St. George—which is exactly 
the same as the Red Cross of to-day, save that the 
end of the arms of the cross were slightly indented, 
Maltese fashion. 

“ When the modern Red Cross was organized, in 
1863—I’m going to tell you about that in a minute 
—the Knights Hospitallers’ symbol of mercy, a 
white cross on a red ground, was suggested as the 
insignia. As this was the national flag of Switzer¬ 
land, however, the colors were reversed. Thus 
Switzerland’s honor as having been the prime mover 
in the great Treaty of Geneva was formally acknowl- 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 


93 


edged in the Red Cross flag, and, at the same time, 
the historical and sentimental connection with the 
Knights Hospitallers was maintained. 

“ In the modern Red Cress, woman nurses take an 
important place, and I'll show you why. The his¬ 
tory of nursing is a long one. The patrician ladies 
of Rome organized hospitals with women nurses. 
Under Byzantine rule, it was recognized as a part of 
the duties of the empress to visit the hospitals on 
certain saints’ days; in these hospitals women at¬ 
tendants were engaged. An interesting point is that, 
in the fourth century, a contemporary historian 
remarks that six hundred women were employed in 
the hospitals of Alexandria. 

“ The whole character of life in the Dark Ages 
and the Middle Ages is incomprehensible without a 
proper understanding of the dominant part played 
therein by the great religious Orders of monks and 
nuns, who did—and did well—practically all the 
social work which we now consider to be the duty of 
the state. Charity, in the widest sense of the word, 
was a principal tenet in every rule: Benedictine, 
Augustinian, Franciscan, or any other. The labors 
of the Little Brothers of the Poor, founded by St. 
Francis of Assisi, hold high rank in the galaxy of 
noble deeds. The Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent 


94 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

de Paul, founded in 1633 for the express purpose of 
nursing and charity relief, is still the largest nursing 
organization in the world. 

“ The honor of giving an international character 
to Red Cross work in war lies with Surgeon-General 
Percy, of the French Army. In the eighteenth cen¬ 
tury he suggested to the French and Austrian com¬ 
manders that all military hospitals—irrespective of 
nationality—should be considered as sacred asy¬ 
lums; that if any of them were captured by either 
side, the enemy must continue their upkeep and 
provide for the medical staff; and, especially, that 
no distinction of nationality was to be made in the 
reception of wounded. Soldiers, when convalescent, 
were to be sent back to their respective armies with¬ 
out being considered as prisoners of war. 

“ Out of his own private fortune he trained, uni¬ 
formed and equipped a corps of ‘ stretcher-bearers ’ 
for work amid the wounded on the field of battle. 
He was blamed for his efforts, instead of thanked, 
for the world had not yet risen to the idea that sick¬ 
ness is a greater bond of union than territorial 
boundaries are of disunion. Although it was dis¬ 
approved at the time, the plan had shown its use¬ 
fulness, and Napoleon adopted the principle of 
‘ stretcher-bearers’ in his later campaigns. Percy’s 


95 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 

ideas were largely adopted in the Second Treaty of 
Geneva in 1905, and endorsed by the Convention of 
The Hague.” 

“ Steadily the world improves,” commented the 
banker. 

Stewart shrugged his shoulders, and continued: 

“ Up to this time, however, there was no such 
thing as the ‘ trained nurse/ except in the form of a 
training by experience, such as the Sisters of Charity 
received. The first training of nurses began in 1836, 
in Germany, when Pastor Fleidner established, at 
Kaiserswerth, an Institute for the Training of 
Deaconesses. Florence Nightingale went there to 
study its methods. 

“America was the first to follow this splendid lead, 
for the Society of Friends founded a nursing organi¬ 
zation on the Kaiserswerth pattern in Philadelphia 
in 1838. England followed two years later. During 
the next ten years, the value of trained nurses be¬ 
came so evident that almost every country in Europe 
established training schools. Gradually, the idea 
grew that a trained nurse need not take religious 
vows, and, as it was a well-paid and dignified pro¬ 
fession, women took to it with eagerness.” 

“ I never knew that Florence Nightingale was a 
trained nurse,” put in Oglethorpe. “ I always 


96 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

thought she was a wealthy and charitable woman 
who, because of her tender-heartedness, answered 
an appeal for help sent to England by a journalist 
during the Crimean War.” 

“ That’s perfectly true,” agreed Stewart, “ but it’s 
only half the story. Though wealthy, Elorence 
Nightingale always possessed a surging desire for 
the service of humanity. While of English parent¬ 
age, she was born in Italy, and had travelled much. 
It grieved her to realize that England was far be¬ 
hind the Continental countries in such matters as 
sanitation, hospital and prison work. Her mission 
in life, as she saw it, was to awaken her country’s 
conscience in the matter. Her enduring fame shows 
how well she succeeded. 

“ She went through the entire course of training 
at the Deaconesses’ Institute at Kaiserswerth, and 
then spent more than a year in Paris, living with 
the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, in order to learn 
and to compare their methods. On her return to 
London, she reorganized a Convalescent Home and 
a small Hospital, giving lavishly of her own fortune, 
and making every effort to interest the authorities 
in the character of her work. 

“ One day, not long after British soldiers had 
reached the Crimea, the London Times printed this 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 97 

historic appeal from its War Correspondent at the 
front: 

“ ‘ Are there no devoted women among us, able 
and willing to go forth to minister to the sick and 
suffering soldiers of the East in the hospitals of 
Scutari? Are none of the daughters of England, at 
this extreme hour of need, ready for such a work of 
mercy? ’ 

“ Sidney Herbert, Secretary of War, wrote that 
very morning to Florence Nightingale, as the only 
competently trained woman in England, giving her 
a free hand in everything if she would undertake the 
organization of a volunteer nursing service, and of¬ 
fering her a ship-of-war for the transport of every¬ 
thing needful. This letter crossed one from Florence 
Nightingale, offering her services. 

“ Within five weeks, the ship of mercy set forth, 
with thirty-eight nurses, about one-half of them 
partly trained. The French Sisters of Charity had 
been on the field ever since the second week of the 
war, and three hundred Russian Sisters of the Ex¬ 
altation of the Cross had already established hos¬ 
pitals in Sebastopol.” 

“H’m! Florence Nightingale wasn’t the first, 
then, as I thought! ” 

“ No, but her fame is rightfully the greatest, for 
she had the training and the organizing ability to 


98 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


make military nursing an essential part of army 
work. She was the first to realize the need of haste 
in rescuing the wounded. Still more, she was the 
first to give practical effect to the idea that care for 
the wounded is a part of the country’s duty; up to 
that time, military nursing had consisted only of 
doing one’s best, out of charity, for such soldiers as 
happened to be brought to improvised hospitals. 

“ It was Florence Nightingale who forced the army 
to build proper hospital camps, who insisted on 
sanitation, and w T ho used military efficiency instead 
of haphazard kindness. She was a pioneer in her 
insistence on cleanliness and fresh air in hospitals. 
She was, perhaps, one of the very first to break 
through the terrible old custom of abandoning the 
sick and dying during all the hours of darkness, for, 
amazing as it seems now, wounded sufferers agonized 
all night long in military hospitals without atten¬ 
tion. 

“ To Florence Nightingale belongs the honor of 
having instituted night nursing, and, every night, 
went herself along the line of sick and suffering— 
there were four miles of beds in Scutari alone!— 
lamp in hand, to soothe and to heal. Her figure— 
that of The Lady with the Lamp—possesses a pe¬ 
culiar appeal of winsomeness and efficiency, and she 






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HEROES OF HUMANITY 99 

has become the symbol of sick-room tenderness and 
strength to a modern world.” 

“ High praise! ” 

“ It cannot be too high! Among other rare quali- 

t 

ties, Florence Nightingale’s work possessed the 
unique quality of inspiration. Two of your country¬ 
men, Mr. Oglethorpe, were among those stirred by 
her, and they brought into concrete and vital form 
the great principles which the work of Surgeon- 
General Percy and Florence Nightingale had evoked. 

“ The first, however, was Henri Dunant, a French 
Swiss, of Geneva. By nature a philanthropist, and 
by preference a traveller, he found himself on the 
very heels of the Battle of Solferino, when, in 1859, 
the Austrians were routed and the French and Sar¬ 
dinians followed in pursuit, the surgeons of the re¬ 
spective armies enforcedly accompanying the troops 
and abandoning the wounded. It was thus he wrote 
of it, in that famous pamphlet ‘ A Souvenir of 
Solferino/ which has become a classic in the world’s 
writings of humanity: 


“ ‘ The morning of June 24th dawns with the 
sound of battle. Three hundred thousand men are 
face to face. Fifteen miles long stretches the battle 
line. The bugle notes and the roll of the drums re¬ 
sound the charge. At three in the morning, the 


100 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


allied army corps are marching on Solferino and 
Cavriana. 

“ 1 By six o’clock, the fire becomes more furious. 
In the warm June morning, the Austrian troops in 
compact masses march along the open roads under 
the fluttering banners of black and red. The bril¬ 
liant Italian sun glitters on the polished armor of 
the French dragoons and cuirassiers. 

“ ‘ In the burning midday heat, still more furiously 
the battle rages. Column after column fling them¬ 
selves on each other. Piled high, the dead lie on 
hills and in ravines. Austrians and Allies trample 
the wounded underfoot, kill each other and fall upon 
their bleeding comrades. Drunk or mad with blood, 
the butchery goes on. Over the field of slaughter 
dashes the wild cavalry charge, the horses’ iron hoofs 
beating down the wretched men. 

“ ‘ Back and forth the conflict rages. Villages are 
taken and retaken; every house, every farm, the 
scene of battle and of struggle. Back of dark, 
threatening clouds, the sun is lost. A tempest of 
wind and lightning rises; icy rain sweeps across the 
field. As the shadows of night begin to fall, the 
tumult of the battle dies away. Exhausted men 
sink down to sleep where they stand, or search for 
some missing comrade. The silent darkness is 
broken by the groans and cries for help of the 
wounded men.’ 

“ This famous pamphlet, ‘ A Souvenir of Solfe¬ 
rino,’ then goes on to describe in simple but throb¬ 
bing language the horror of that night and the days 
following, the thousands of untended wounded, the 
lack of water and food, the pitifully few surgeons 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 


101 


where hundreds would not have been too many, the 
lack of nursing, the pity and hideousness of it all. 

“ ‘ Why/ asked Dunant at the close of his pam¬ 
phlet, 1 why have we thought well to recall these 
scenes of grief and desolation, to recount such lam¬ 
entable and gruesome details, and to draw such 
vivid pictures of despair? 1 

“ The words are famous, and his answering ques¬ 
tion is still more famous: 

“ ‘ Would it not be possible/ he wrote, ‘ to found 
and to organize, in all civilized countries, permanent 
societies of volunteers which, in time of war, would 
render succor to the wounded, without distinction oj 
nationality f ’ 

“ This question was answered by the Geneva Con¬ 
ference, largely made possible by the enthusiasm 
and ability of one of Dunant’s townsmen, Gustav 
Moynier, and that conference brought into being the 
modern Red Cross. 

“ It is significant that Dunant’s first visit to se¬ 
cure royal aid for his project was to the Grand Mas¬ 
ter of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Frederick 
Charles of Prussia, Without any thought of jeal¬ 
ousy, the head of the Knights of Hospitallers, carry¬ 
ing on the tradition of centuries, promised his sup¬ 
port. Napoleon III followed, and the monarchs of 


102 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

one country after another rallied to this humani¬ 
tarian plan. 

“ Moynier, president of the Society of Public 
Utility of Geneva, learning from Dunant how 
cordially he had been received, called an interna¬ 
tional conference ‘ to investigate the means of sup¬ 
plementing the inadequacy of medical services of 
armies in campaigns.’ This conference was held in 
Geneva in 1863, with fourteen European countries 
represented. The United States, in the throes of 
Civil War, did not attend. Briefly, the conference 
agreed to resolutions forming the nucleus of the Red 
Cross as at present organized. 

“ The year following, a diplomatic convention was 
summoned to give force to these resolutions. At 
this the United States was not only represented ‘ in 
an informal manner ’ by our Minister to Switzer¬ 
land, but also by a representative of the United 
States Sanitary Commission. This Commission, 
during the Civil War, had been carrying out relief 
work among the wounded according to the latest 
ideas of that time, and had solved by practical 
methods many of the problems which the Conven¬ 
tion feared impracticable. 

“ There’s little doubt, to my mind, that the very 
full exhibit of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, with 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 103 


its reports, statistics, photographs, etc., was a leading 
factor in bringing the diplomats to agree to the reso¬ 
lutions of the preceding Conference, and to sign the 
Treaty of Geneva, popularly known as the Red Cross 
Treaty. Thus, though the United States was not 
one of the original signatories, its ‘ unofficial ob¬ 
servers J were potent in bringing about the amaz¬ 
ingly successful conclusion.” 

“ My father,” interposed Oglethorpe, “ was a 
member of the Sanitary Commission during the 
Civil War. He told me, once, something of the diffi¬ 
culties which it faced before the United States Gov¬ 
ernment would approve its work.” 

“ The difficulties were enormous,” Stewart agreed. 
“ The medical department of the Army declined its 
assistance, and President Lincoln was openly hostile 
to it. Undesired inspection by the Commission re¬ 
vealed that, in the Union Army camps, there was 
no system of drainage, no sanitation, and no means 
of bathing, that the tents were overcrowded and 
foul, the soldiers’ clothing was inadequate, and there 
was no opportunity for washing linen. Vermin was 
everywhere, menacing typhus. There was no effort 
at proper cooking, no fresh vegetables, no disposal 
of waste, and scurvy and dysentery were regarded 
as matters of course. The United States Govern- 


104 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

ment turned a deaf ear to the reports of the inspec¬ 
tion. 

“ The disaster of the First Battle of Bull Run, 
with its appalling evidence that the Union soldiers 
were too weak to possess any morale, produced a 
profound impression. The Commission started a 
volunteer investigation, and found that the de¬ 
moralization of the army was no fault of the soldiers 
but was due to crass incompetence and culpable 
neglect of everything that the officers of an Army, 
the medical department, and the commissariat ought 
to do. So condemnatory were the findings that the 
Government strictly ordered that the report should 
not be allowed to be made public. The Confederate 
Army was better officered, better tended, and better 
fed; the Southern women, from the very start, 
slaved night and day for their soldiers. 

“ Realizing that the war would be lost to the 
Union side unless something radical were done, the 
Government accepted the findings of the Sanitary 
Commission—although refusing to give it official 
standing—and proceeded to make reforms in a half¬ 
hearted way. The Commission was not to be put 
down and continued aggressively on a volunteer 
basis. Vast Sanitary Fairs were the means of col¬ 
lecting millions of dollars; trains, steamboats, and 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 10 5 

stretcher corps were equipped and sent forth; from 
every brigade arose a cry of gratitude, and yet the 
Commission was almost forced to abandon its work 
for lack of official support. 

“ Bad as was the apathy of the Government, local 
pride was almost more harmful. Soldiers’ Aid So¬ 
cieties multiplied in every Northern State, and each 
tried to work privately, aside from the Sanitary 
Commission. A supply depot from Maine refused 
to give food to a regiment from Pennsylvania. The 
rivalry was insensate, the waste of energy and the 
scattering of supplies cost hundreds of lives. 

“ At this point came a turn in the tide: the Gov¬ 
ernment allowed the Commission to undertake the 
distribution of supplies. This gave it a semi-official 
standing, and, instantly, order began to rise from 
chaos. In 1863, General Grant issued an order that 
the Army should do its utmost to help the Commis¬ 
sion. This gave it a chance to take advantage of 
the recommendations made by Florence Nightingale 
and Dunant, and the United States was the first 
nation to put into action the lofty ideas which, a 
few months later, were to be crystallized by the 
First Conference at Geneva. 

“As yet there was no trained-nurse system. The 
history of the American Red Cross would not be 


106 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

complete—even in the briefest account of it—with¬ 
out mention of the names of Dorothea Dix, Captain 
Sallie Tompkins, Mother Bickerdyke, and Clara 
Barton. The work of the women of America, of 
North and South alike, was a marvellous example of 
devotion and unselfishness. Yet, lacking an organi¬ 
zation which could direct and concentrate their ef¬ 
forts, not one-tenth was accomplished of what might 
have been done with the same means. 

“ The Sanitary Commission purposed to continue 
after the war, and formed an association to obtain 
the United States Government’s adherence to the 
Treaty of Geneva. It failed utterly. Clara Barton 
—who had done some relief work during the Civil 
War—was a visitor at the meetings of the Inter¬ 
national Red Cross Committee in 1869, and she wit¬ 
nessed some of the work of the Red Cross in the 
Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. But her ap¬ 
peals to the United States had no effect. 

“ In 1877, Monsieur Moynier, President of the 
International Red Cross Committee, again tried to 
enlist America in the good cause. At last, Clara 
Barton secured a favorable promise from President 
Garfield. Upon this the ‘ American Association of 
the Red Cross ’ was formed, with Clara Barton as 
president, and was confirmed by the Senate in 1882. 



HEROES OF HUMANITY 107 


The United States became a signatory of the Treaty 
of Geneva in the same year. 

“ This Association did some good work, as it could 
not help but do, but there were very serious defects 
in its management, such as loose auditing methods 
—no one ever knew where the money went to. Re¬ 
lief work on a big scale required a profound knowl¬ 
edge of business administration if costly and waste¬ 
ful ‘ overhead ’ is to be avoided, and nowhere is 
waste so reprehensible as when handling money 
given by generosity for the aid of sufferers. 

“ Consequently, when the Spanish-American 
War broke out, in 1898, there was no national con¬ 
fidence in the A. A. R. C. A new volunteer body, 
called the ‘ American National Red Cross Relief 
Committee/ was formed in New York, with Bishop 
Potter—a born leader and an organizer of remark¬ 
able power—at its head. Other big cities followed 
this lead, with committees of their own on the New 
York pattern. The A. A. R. C. fell lower and lower 
in public esteem. Following the War, a slight re¬ 
organization was made, but, a year or two later, 
grave irregularities were found in its affairs, and the 
leading men of the country demanded an investiga¬ 
tion. Clara Barton resigned, and the association was 
dissolved soon after. 


108 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ In 1905, the real ‘ American National Red 
Cross ’ was created, to function as a Government in¬ 
stitution, with the essential factor that its operating 
expenses were to be cut down to the last notch, and 
its books rigidly audited by the War Department. 
Taft, then Secretary of War, was its first President. 
Ever since Taft entered the White House, the Presi¬ 
dent of the United States has been the President of 
the Red Cross. The chairman and vice-chairman of 
the War Relief Board are the Surgeon-Generals of 
the Army and the Navy, and there is no private or 
corporate influence of any kind. By special procla¬ 
mation in 1911, the American Red Cross was desig¬ 
nated as the only volunteer society authorized by 
the United States Government to ‘ render aid to its 
land and naval forces during war,’ other societies 
being compelled to offer their assistance only through 
the Red Cross. 

“ It was full time for such a reorganization, for, 
only three years later, the World War broke upon 
mankind with all its horrors. The story of Red 
Cross work in the War hardly needs to be told. 
Every man who went overseas, every man who 
stayed in the home camps, every woman who toiled 
willingly in the workrooms or sewed frantically in 
her home to aid the soldiers, every child in the 


HEROES OF HUMANITY 109 


Junior Red Cross, knows the greatness of America’s 
effort. The children, especially, did marvels, and 
when you realize that there were over 11,000,000 of 
them enrolled by the end of 1918, you can see that 
they formed a force to reckon with.” 

Stewart turned suddenly on his young companion. 
“ What did you do in the Great War, Gavin? ” 

“ I had a tutor at home, and hadn’t started going 
to school yet, so I wasn’t in any Red Cross work,” 
the boy replied. “ But,” he added eagerly, “ I’m 
going to make up, now! ” 


CHAPTER V 


THE TRAIN OF DEATH 

“ Gavin, this boy's jate is strictly up to you! ” 
Gavin stared blankly at the piece of paper which 
had just been handed to him, and at its curt mes¬ 
sage, simply signed: “ T. Stewart .” Then he looked 
up, to catch Martin’s shrewd eye on him. 

“ Where did you get this, Martin? ” 

“ A boy brought me a letter from Mr. Stewart 
this morning while you were at school. This slip 
was inside. I was told to give it to you. That’s 
all I know about it.” 

“ Haven’t you asked the boy anything? ” 

“I? Not a word. Why should I? That’s your 
job, if I understand Red Cross orders right.” 

“ But why should Stewart pick on me?” 

“ Well, just after he was here last week to see 
your father about getting that Chapter started, you 
told me that Junior Red Cross group work in school 
—such as foreign correspondence and the exchange 
of portfolios—wasn’t exciting enough for you, and 
that you wanted a chance to do something all by 
yourself.” 


110 


THE TRAIN OF DEATH 


111 


“ And you told Stewart, I suppose? ” 

“ I dropped him a line.” 

Gavin turned the paper over in his hands, evi¬ 
dently a good deal embarrassed. 

“ What’s the fellow like, Martin? ” 

“ He’s in my rooms over the garage.” 

“ Yes, but what’s he like? ” 
f ‘ Better look him over for yourself.” 

“ I wonder what Father-” 

“ I didn’t observe that Mr. Stewart’s note said 
anything about consulting your father at the start.” 

The boy stared at his companion, amazed and 
overcome. His hastily spoken word was bringing 
results with an unexpected swiftness. 

“ You mean it’s really up to me, then? ” 

“ Looks that way.” 

Gavin pitched his bundle of school-books on the 
steps leading up to the house from the park drive, 
and turned toward the garage, the chauffeur at his 
side. The two went up the stairs to Martin’s two- 
room lodgings, the boy’s heart thumping uneasily in 
confusion and embarrassment. 

“ Ivan Michailovitch,” said the chauffeur, as he 
threw open the door and motioned Gavin to enter, 
“ this is Gavin Oglethorpe.” 

A tall lad, roughly dressed, stepped forward and, 



112 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

to the American boy’s utter surprise, kissed his 
hand. 

A disconcerting pause followed. Gavin had not 
the faintest idea what to say; the Russian lad, evi¬ 
dently, was waiting. Martin, keenly observant, 
stood aside to watch how the situation would de¬ 
velop. 

“ You’ve come to see me? ” said Gavin, at last. 

The Russian bowed. 

This did not advance the conversation much 
farther. 

Then Gavin realized that if Stewart had sent the 
lad, it must be in some connection with the Red 
Cross, and at once he remembered the motto of his 
little badge: “ I serve.” 

“ What can I do to help you? ” he asked, and a 
gleam in Martin’s eyes showed him that he was on 
the right road. 

“ You is Red Cross,” the Russian answered. “ I 
will do what you says is good.” 

Not at all eased by this frank placing of respon¬ 
sibility on his shoulders, Gavin pulled up a chair. 
He could see that the interview was likely to be long. 

“ Sit down, Ivan! ” he said, with embarrassed 
friendliness. 

After a momentary hesitation, the Russian sat 


THE TRAIN OF DEATH 113 

down, well on the edge of his chair, very straight 
and attentive. 

“ How did you get here? ” queried Gavin. 

“ You mean—from Russia? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Siberia—Japan.” 

Martin leaned forward with sudden interest. 

“ Were you one of the Red Cross Children’s 
Colony on the Yomei Maruf ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Ah! You ought to find out about that, Gavin,” 
put in the chauffeur. “ Get him to tell you about 
himself.” 

The Russian had listened carefully. 

“ I speak English not well,” he said, “ but under¬ 
stand little bit. You want—know me? ” 

He drew from his inner pocket some pages of a 
magazine, pinned together, very carefully wrapped 
in a piece of cloth. They were slightly yellowed 
with age. These he handed to Gavin. 

The pages bore no magazine name, but a photo¬ 
graph on the first page was that of an American 
Red Cross Refugee Hospital in Vladivostok. It was 
part of a copy of the Red Cross Magazine for April, 
1919. 

Gavin ruffled the leaves. 


114 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

On the third page of the article was another 
photograph, representing some men crowded into a 
box car, which was divided horizontally by a sort of 
shelf. Under the picture were the words: 

They were yacked in, jorty to a car, and the door 
was seldom opened except to take out the dead. 

Ivan rose, and pointing to one of the bearded men 
in the lower section of the car: 

“ My father! ” he said. 

“ In the War? ” the American boy queried. 

“ No. My father, he schoolmaster. Bolsheviki 
put him in prison, Samara, because he not close 
school. Dead now; dead in train.” 

Gavin stared at the lad, his blood running cold, 
and turned back to the beginning of the article. It 
was entitled “ The Train of Death,” and was written 
by a Red Cross man, Rudolph Bukely, who had been 
a banker at Honolulu before he offered his services 
to humanity. 

Martin, who had risen and was looking over the 
boy’s shoulder, interrupted by saying slowly, almost 
solemnly: 

“I remember that article—well! Read it! ” he 
said. 

And, in that small room in happy America, the 
shadow of pitiful tragedy came, of terrible tragedy, 



THE TRAIN OF DEATH 115 

as Gavin turned back the yellowed pages, and began 
to read. 

“ It is the eighteenth day of November, 1918.” 
Thus the article began its true tale of misery and 
of the relief that came so late. 1 “ I am at Nikolsk- 
Ussurisk in Siberia. I have seen enough misery to 
fill a lifetime. I will try to set down in my own 
manner what I have seen. I have seen the dead, 
through whose bodies disease and vermin have eaten 
their way until life itself has departed, after five 
months of daily, agonizing torture from hunger, 
filth, exposure. Before God, I do not exaggerate! 

“ I have seen through the windows of box-cars, 
whose dimensions were twenty-four feet by ten, 
forty animals who once were human men, women 
and children; faces glared at me which I could not 
recognize as those of human beings. They were 
like beasts’ faces, of a species unknown to man. 
Stark madness and terror stared from their eyes, and 
over and over all the unmistakable sign of death. 
. . . What I have seen and heard I would have 

deemed lies if any one had told me of their occur¬ 
rence. To-night I am sitting here writing them, 

1 The author does not hesitate to quote at some length 
from this article, for it is one of his firm convictions that 
American boys who are worth their salt are not afraid of 
the truth. The American Red Cross has to deal with 
terrible realities, and there can be no flinching.— P. R-W. 


116 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

hoping that the mere writing of the details may 
relieve me, so that I can once more think rationally 
and do earnest conscientious work with the Ameri¬ 
can Red Cross in Siberia, for poor, stricken Russia. 

“ This ‘ train of death/ for by that name all 
Eastern Siberia now knows it, left Samara (in 
Russia) approximately six weeks ago. Men of the 
Russian railroad service are stationed as far west as 
Manchuria Station, some twelve hundred miles west 
of here, through which the train must have passed 
at least three weeks ago. Since then it has passed 
through Hailar, Titsikar, Harbin, Moolime, going 
on and on like a thing accursed, through a land 
where its stricken passengers found little food and 
less pity. 

“ It left Samara in charge of some Russian officers. 
It had on board, at that time, twenty-one hundred 
prisoners of all sorts. They were apparently civil 
prisoners. Between that day and the day before 
yesterday, when we found this loathsome caravan 
in Nikolsk, eight hundred of these wretches had died 
from starvation, filth, and disease. In Siberia there 
is misery and death on every hand, on a scale that 
would appal the stoutest heart. There were, as near 
as we could count, thirteen hundred and twenty-five 
men, women and children penned up in these awful 



Courtesy of American Bed Cross. 

On the Train of Death. 

“They were packed in, forty to a car, and the door was seldom 
opened except to take out the dead.” 






Courtesy of American Red Cross. 

The Good Ship Red cross Setting Out on her Errand of 
Mercy to All Nations, at the Beginning of the 

World War. 



Courtesy of American Red Cross. 


Seventeen Light Motor Ambulances Donated by the 
Students of Yale and Harvard Universities to 
France, England, Belgium, Germany, 
and Austria. 

















THE TRAIN OF DEATH 


117 


cars yesterday. Since last night six have died. By 
and by they will all die if the train is permitted to 
go on in such conditions. 

“ I cannot understand the reasoning of the 
Russian mind. There are millions of pounds of 
produce at Omsk which cannot be moved for lack 
of rolling stock . . . and yet for weeks this 

train has been wandering, driven on from station to 
station, every day a few more corpses being dragged 
out. There are from thirty-five to forty persons in a 
box-car, measuring, say, twenty-five feet by eleven, 
and the doors have seldom been open save to drag 
out the bodies of the dead, or some woman who had 
better be. I have been told that when they first 
started out there were as many as sixty in many of 
these cars, but death has weeded them out. 

“ I have climbed into these cars at night with my 
flash-light, I have gone into them in the early morn¬ 
ings and examined them. I have seen men with the 
death rattle in their throat, half naked; others just 
lying in a semi-unconscious stupor, and others wfith 
the whining grin of imbeciles, holding out their 
hands for a few cigarettes or kopecks, chuckling with 
glee like apes upon being given them. 

“ I have talked to one of them, a woman doctor 
who was doing Red Cross work wfith the Red Guards 


118 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

—she would have done the same work for any one. 
A highly educated, intellectual woman, forty years 
old. She has been on this train for weeks. 

“ I have talked to a girl under eighteen years of 
age, beautiful, refined, intellectual. She was for¬ 
merly a typist and bookkeeper in the mayor’s office 
at Samara. The opposition party got in; she ap¬ 
plied for the same job and got it. Later, the au¬ 
thorities heard of her former occupation, and she 
was sentenced to six days in jail. She was taken in 
the great net. She has been on this train for weeks, 
and unless the Red Cross comes to her aid she will 
die on this train. Her clothing ... no coat, in 
this fierce winter weather. 

“ I have talked to a man who has not the brains 
left to know the difference between a Red Guard and 
one of any other color. His wife quarreled with 
another woman, who evidently lodged complaint. 
He has been in the box-car for five weeks. He will 
die within forty-eight hours. 

“ I have talked to a man who, going home from 
his work at night, stopped to see the reason of a 
street disturbance. The police arrested many in the 
crowd. He was among them. He will die on the 
train. 

“ I have seen such die, and the following morning 


THE TRAIN OF DEATH 


119 


I have seen their bodies dragged out of the cars like 
so much rubbish. The living are indifferent, for they 
know that their turn will come next. 

“ Of anything like sanitary provision this train 
has nothing, and the accumulation of filth in which 
these people have lived and are dying is absolutely 
unspeakable. 

“ The Russian officer in charge of the train has 
made inconsistent statements about the reasons why 
those people have been subjected to such awful dep¬ 
rivation and abuse. He tries to make the best story 
of it possible. They were supposed to have been fed 
regularly at the different stations along the route, 
but often for days there has been no one to give 
them even bread. 

“ We have sent a hundred and thirty to the hos¬ 
pital to-day, and, one way and another, we are 
holding the train. That is the main thing. It 
should have begun going back to Samara last night, 
but it has not gone, and I do not think that the 
Russian train officials will dare to send it out with us 
on the spot all the time, opening the cars ourselves, 
talking to the prisoners, giving them what hope of 
help we can, and taking photographs every day. We 
are doing all this without authority, and, in the face 
of this horror, we don’t care who cares. 


120 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


“ Two more days have now gone by. Since we 
arrived a cooking car has been put on the train, 
with a large iron kettle, and yesterday the guards 
claim to have given the prisoners a little soup. One 
kettle for thirteen hundred and twenty-five people, 
and soup passed through a window—a foot by a foot 
and a half—by means of an old rusty can! Three 
men died in the night. 

“ As we walked past the train, a man hailed us 
from one of the cars and the guards were told that 
there were dead inside. We insisted on the door 
being opened, and this is what we saw: Lying right 
across the threshold was the body of a boy not over 
eighteen or nineteen years old. No coat, merely a 
thin shirt, in such tatters that his whole chest and 
arms were exposed, for trousers a piece of jute bag 
pinned around him, and no shoes or stockings. 
What agony that boy must have suffered in the 
Siberian cold before he died of filth, starvation and 
exposure! And yet ‘ diplomacy ’ prevents us from 
taking charge and giving aid. But we are holding 
the train! 

“ We climbed into the car and found two other 
dead lying on the second tier of bunks amongst the 
living. Nearly every man in that car was sunken¬ 
eyed, gaunt, and half clad. They were racked by 


THE TRAIN OF DEATH 121 


terrible coughing. They had the stamp of death on 
them. If aid does not come quickly, they will die. 

“ We looked into a few cars only, but at one win¬ 
dow we saw a little girl, perhaps eleven years old. 
Father, mother, and child are on that train, and will 
die there. 

“ Two days later. . . . We are still holding 
the train by means of the cooperation of a Czech 
lieutenant, and in case of need he agrees he will put 
the engine out of order. Last night the station- 
master showed us telegraphic instructions that the 
train must positively pull out at 1 a. m., but it is 
still here. ... At the hospital, to-day, the con¬ 
ditions are as bad as ever. 

“ The afternoon. . . . We are still holding the 

train, and have made arrangements with a Russian 
bath, some three-quarters of a mile aw r ay, to wash 
all the prisoners to-morrow. They should be 
through in ten hours, but it may take longer. 

“ Our Red Cross car has arrived from Vladivostok, 
and as each man goes in to his bath his infested 
underclothes will be taken from him and burned, 
and he will be given in exchange a pair of socks, a 
sweater, and a pair of pajamas. They will then be 
put in new cars. 

“ Oh, you dear, dear women of Honolulu! The 


122 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

first case that I opened came from you, and I read 
on the slip, ‘ Hawaii Chapter.' Inside were warm 
flannel pajamas, beautifully made, each with a hand¬ 
kerchief in the pocket and a flannel Red Cross sewed 
on the coat. All the weary hours that you have 
spent during the last four years in dear Hawaii mak¬ 
ing these things, day after day, would seem as noth¬ 
ing to you if you had the privilege, as I had, of see¬ 
ing these garments, sewed and made by your loving 
hands, clothing the bodies of these poor emaciated 
wrecks in lieu of the foul rags that even now are 
burning. When they saw the Red Cross, many of 
them broke down and wept and pointed to the Red 
Cross on my collar and hat. 

“ To-morrow when this train pulls out, it will 
have nine hundred and twenty-five Red Crosses on 
it (persons so clothed) but I must still call it the 
‘ train of death.' There is no use disguising the fact 
that these people are nearly all going to die, for as 
soon as the train shall have pulled out, the old con¬ 
ditions will return and there will be once more the 
corpses thrown out day by day from each car. 

“ Next day. . . . To-day we leave for Vla¬ 

divostok. We have done all that we could do. We 
have just learned that there are thirty additional 
cases of typhus in the hospital and Heaven knows 


THE TRAIN OF DEATH 


123 


how many on the train. We have bought buckets 
and brooms for the cars, which will help a little.^ 

The article goes on: 

“ Mr. Bukely’s prophecy that the death train 
would still be a death train was fulfilled. As it went 
on over the Transr-Siberian, first west, then east, 
back and forth, driven from town to town, miserable 
news of it kept filtering into Vladivostok. On De¬ 
cember 6, two weeks later, the train, now with 
thirty-eight cars of prisoners, had left Titsikar for 
Chita; one hundred and twenty were reported dan¬ 
gerously ill, and fifteen had died since leaving 
Nikolsk. The Siberian Red Cross Commission im¬ 
mediately wired to hold the train, but it had gone 
west beyond Chita. 

“At Manchuria Station, the local Americans of 
the Army and the Russian Railway Service provided 
food for one day, and the Japanese general was able 
to furnish further relief. Medical attention was 
given at this point. 

“ Three days later another telegram came in, 
showing that the train had been turned back from 
the west and was probably in the vicinity of 
Titsikar, in the middle of Manchuria, on the Chinese 
Eastern Railway. On and on, days and nights, 
weeks running into months, the wretched company 


124 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

ever dwindling as death takes its cruel and incessant 
toll.” 

Gavin dropped the paper in his lap, feeling more 
than a little sick. 

“ And you were in Siberia, too, Ivan? ” he asked, 
shakily. 

“ When Father—Mother was put in prison, I run 
away. Hid in train, part way to Kurgan, tried walk 
to Petropavlovsk. Caught by soldier, much beaten, 
very much. Lived empty hut woodcutter. Winter 
—very cold. Lot snow. Spring—me very weak, too 
weak walk like man, crawled over snow like snake.” 

“ What did you find to eat? ” 

“ Nothing—often. Nuts in squirrel pockets, 

sometimes.” 

“ He means the hoards gathered by squirrels for 
their winter use,” explained Martin. 

“ Caught rabbits asleep—two.” Ivan made the 
gesture of strangling a wild creature with his hands. 
“ Ate raw—no fire.” 

“Ugh! ” exclaimed Gavin, with a gesture of re¬ 
pulsion. 

“ Spring—better. Lot caterpillars, little frogs, 
birds’ eggs—very good. Made net of grass, catch lot 
fish. Grow strong. Summer, lot berries, roots, me 
well again. Go Petropavlovsk. Put in prison.” 



THE TRAIN OF DEATH 


125 


“ What on earth for? ” 

Ivan shrugged his shoulders. 

“ In Russia, no one know why prison. Not stay 
long. Sent Omsk. Japanese Red Cross man visit 
prison Omsk. See me. Lot talk. Me go away, free. 
In Russia, no one know why free. Japanese Red 
Cross tell American Red Cross. Take me Vladi¬ 
vostok. Good, there. American Red Cross school, 
lot Russian teachers. Hundreds lost children. Big, 
clean houses, Russian Island. Learn little English.” 

“One minute, Ivan!” interposed Martin. “I 
think I’d better make this a little clearer to you, 
Gavin, for I’m not sure that Ivan himself under¬ 
stands how that Red Cross school came to be estab¬ 
lished at Vladivostok. What happened was this: 

“ During the spring of 1918, a good many parents 
of the better classes of Russia—such as had not yet 
been killed by the fanatic revolutionaries—realizing 
that Bolshevik rule was as disastrous to education 
as it was menacing to child-life, sent their children 
to certain regions near the Ural Mountains, which 
were at that time uninfected by Soviet propaganda. 
Most of these children had their tutors or their 
governesses with them, and their parents were will¬ 
ing and ready to pay the Ural peasants for their 
keep. 


126 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ In the autumn of that year, however, the revo¬ 
lutionary fighting created a barrier of fire between 
the children and their parents. The money to pay 
the peasants couldn’t get across the zone of civil 
warfare, and the country-folk, hardly able to keep 
themselves alive, turned the children out. Most of 
the tutors and governesses deserted their charges as 
soon as their pay stopped coming, but a good few 
remained loyal. 

“ Turned out to fend for themselves, hundreds of 
these children were reduced to roaming the woods, 
half-naked, living as best they could on roots, berries 
and nuts. Acorns and chestnuts, raw, were the prin¬ 
cipal food of most. Many of them were less than 
six years of age, and one little lad was only three. 
Luckily, winter hadn’t quite come on yet. 

“ American Red Cross workers first ran across 
scattered bunches of these children in November, 
1918, and promptly set out to hunt up others. 
Nearly eight hundred were found, but there’s no 
way of saying how many hundreds remained undis¬ 
covered and must have died from starvation or 
frozen to death during the winter. 

“ Those who were found were taken eastward, 
some to Omsk and others to Tomsk, to be looked 
after by the Red Cross. In the spring of 1919 the 


THE TRAIN OF DEATH 127 


two groups were put together and were moved to 
Vladivostok, where, it was thought, they would be 
sure of safety. The Government of Omsk gave the 
American Red Cross full authority to adopt these 
children temporarily. 

“ As the system of education under the Tsar’s 
Government had been entirely overthrown by the 
Bolsheviki in 1916, the schools having been shut ' 
down and the schoolmasters and clergy massacred 
•—for a Bolshevik hates an educated man like poison 
—these eight hundred children, who had been run¬ 
ning wild in the Urals, were in sore need of schooling 
and kindly discipline. You can easily see what a 
task it was going to be to train these children. 

“ Accordingly, when the youngsters—growing fat 
and rosy after six months in our care—were quar¬ 
tered in the old military barracks on Russian Island, 
Vladivostok, one of the very first things that the 
American Red Cross did was to establish a Russian 
school, using the few faithful tutors and governesses 
as teachers, aided by the school authorities of Vladi¬ 
vostok. The Red Cross then asked the Archbishop 
to appoint an Orthodox Church priest as resident on 
Russian Island, and thus the little colony entered on 
a happier time than most of the children had ever 
known, for many were too young to remember much 


128 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

of pre-war days. As Ivan says of Vladivostok, 
it was ‘ good there/ 

“ During the summer of 1919, the American Red 
Cross tried to send the children back to their own 
country, but there wasn’t a chance. Russia was 
murder-crazy. Instead of diminishing, the Red 
Peril ran eastward and threatened Vladivostok. The 
safety of the colony being imperilled that way, the 
children were embarked on the Yomei Maru, in 
July, 1920, if I remember right. There were 781 
children on the steamer, together with 62 of their 
native teachers. Wasn’t that it, Ivan? ” 

“ Yes—right,” the Russian boy agreed. 

“ The Yomei Maru ran by Japan, stopped for a 
few days in San Francisco, then struck south through 
the Panama Canal and reached New York. After 
a couple of weeks’ stay there, she sailed on for 
Europe, put in at Brest and finally docked at Kei- 
visto, in Finland, some little distance south of Vi- 
borg. The Finns were right ready to help the little 
ones. 

“ From there the colony went on, part of the way 
by rail and part on foot, to a luxurious sanatorium 
at Halila which had been constructed and equipped 
by the Tsar for consumptive Russians of the richer 
class, but which had never been occupied because a 


THE TRAIN OF DEATH 129 

Finnish Revolution broke out just before it was go¬ 
ing to be inaugurated and changed the line of the 
frontier. At Halila, the Children’s Colony was or¬ 
ganized on exactly the same basis as in Vladivostok. 

“ Late in the autumn of 1919, the Soviet Govern¬ 
ment demanded the immediate repatriation of the 
children, declaring that it was able to provide for 
them. So the youngsters were taken by sledges to 
the frontier, one departure of a hundred children 
every fortnight, until all had left. A Red Cross 
officer accompanied each batch to the frontier, where 
representatives of the Russian ‘ Parents’ Commit¬ 
tee ’ received them.” 

“ It seems a shame to have sent them back to 
Russia! ” declared Gavin. 

But Ivan shook his head in disagreement. 

“ No. Red Cross, right. Red Cross, always right. 
Some had fathers, mothers, in St. Petersburg,” he 
said. 

Gavin remarked that the lad did not use the name 
“ Petrograd ” nor yet “ Leningrad.” 

“ But how did you get here from Finland, Ivan? ” 
he queried. 

“ Me—not to Finland. Stop New York. Mother 
—dead Samara ; Father—dead ‘ death train.’ Soviet 
not want me, me not want Bolsheviki! ” 


130 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ What did you do, then? ” 

“ Uncle of me, very old, lived Alaska. Me—Red 
Cross send there. Last year, come back States. 
Live with cousin—close Madon City. Cousin go 
back Southern Russia, me stay uncle. Uncle dead 
two weeks now. Me ask Red Cross what do. Mr. 
Stewart—Red Cross, say—come here.” 

He nodded in a satisfied manner. It was very 
evident to his mind that everything the Red Cross 
might suggest was perfect. 

“ I can’t very well let the Red Cross down, can 
I?” exclaimed Gavin, turning to Martin in per¬ 
plexity. 

“ No, you can’t! ” 

“ Then what am I to do? ” 

“ That,” the chauffeur remarked, “ is exactly what 
Mr. Stewart has put up to you to decide.” 

The boy pondered a minute or two. 

“You told me once,” he said, thinking aloud, 
“ that in a case of trouble, food is the first thing to 
think of, and shelter is the second. I’m sure if I 
pass a word to old Mammy, Ivan’ll be able to get 
anything he wants from the kitchen. As for shelter 
—can you put him up here, Martin, until I have a 
chance to think things out? You’re Red Cross, too, 
you know,” he added with a chuckle. 



THE TRAIN OF DEATH 131 

“ Of course. I can easily fix up a temporary bed 
in this room. I’d expected to.” 

“ That’s all right! ” 

Gavin sighed with relief as this first decision was 
off his mind. Then an idea came to him. 

“ Of course, I could finance him along myself,” 
he said. “ Father generally lets me have any money 
I want. But why shouldn’t the other chaps at school 
join in? This is Junior Red Cross work, sure 
enough. We could sort of adopt him for ourselves! ” 

“ Don’t try to shift the responsibility! ” warned 
Martin. 

“ I’m not trying to. But when there’s a chance 
to do something really worth while, it’s only fair 
to let the other fellows have some of the fun! ” 


CHAPTER VI 


THE JUNIORS—“ I SERVE ” 

Stewart had put into Gavin’s hands the problem 
of dealing with Ivan’s future, but the boy was not 
so foolish as to suppose that he was expected to act 
without advice. He went promptly to his father’s 
study, told him what he had done and what he in¬ 
tended to do. 

“ Very good,” said the banker, when he had fin¬ 
ished. “ You’ve started, and you’ve got to carry 
through. You can’t back out now, that’s clear, even 
if you want to.” 

“ I don’t want to! ” protested Gavin, indignantly. 

“ Of course not. Then the first thing you have 
to consider, it seems to me, is how you’re going to 
make good. That takes money. Now I’ll give you 
a set of books for bookkeeping, and, although you 
young people really ought to earn it all yourselves, 
I’ll start you with a gift credit of a thousand dollars, 
every cent of which is to be expended on some Red 
Cross work, and entered in those books and rigidly 
accounted for. I’ll audit them for you every month. 

“ But I want you to think of that money, Gavin, 

132 


THE JUNIORS—“ I SERVE ” 


133 


not as if I had given it to you, but as if it had been 
collected from a thousand poor children who had 
given a dollar apiece. If you waste even fifty cents 
of that thousand dollars, put it to yourself as if you 
had thrown away one-half of some poor youngster’s 
generosity. Look on it as a Trust Fund, Gavin! ” 

“ I will, Father; really, I will! ” 

“ So much for that, then. Now for the next point. 
I quite approve your idea of having the Red Cross 
Junior Auxiliary at your school take up Ivan’s af¬ 
fairs with you, so long as you don’t fall into the 
mistake of thinking that ‘ what’s everybody’s busi¬ 
ness is nobody’s business.’ 

“ Another thing. Never let yourself think that 
help to a person is the same thing as charity to a 
‘ case.’ I’ve known some good charity organiza¬ 
tions who’ve failed to do their best, just because of 
that wrong point of view. People hate such organi¬ 
zations and won’t go to them for help because they 
think the relief-w T orkers cold and intrusive. In Red 
Cross work, you’re helping, and helping seriously, 
you’re not giving charity. 

“ Of course, I don’t need to tell you that you ought 
to do all your Junior Red Cross work seriously, as 
well as you possibly can. Just the same, if the 
Foreign Correspondence done by your group isn’t as 


134 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

well handled as it might be, or if your Exchange 
Portfolio is hastily put together, the effect isn’t dis¬ 
astrous. You, yourselves, are the ones who are most 
hurt. But the instant that you’re dealing with the 
lives of people, and that you’re handling Trust 
Funds, the situation changes. Carelessness becomes 
unpardonable, and waste is criminal. 

“ By the way, you’re Chairman—or whatever you 
call it—of the school auxiliary, aren’t you? ” 

“ No, Father. Mr. Howard, one of the teachers, is. 
But the fellows call me 4 Prexy.’ ” 

“ Let them drop it, then. Pick some one else for 
your leader.” 

“ Why? ” asked Gavin, a little aggrieved. 

“ Because, to my idea, you’d better act as Treas¬ 
urer. It’ll give you training in something that you’ll 
need later in life. It’s fully as responsible a position, 
and yet it won’t look as if you were trying to get the 
glory of leadership—which is a form of vanity you 
ought to learn to avoid, especially in Red Cross 
work.” 

The boy nodded. 

“ I see! ” 

“Now for this question of Ivan. You need to 
bear in mind, my boy, that the very worst thing 
you could do for him would be to have him feel that 


THE JUNIORS— a I SERVE ” 135 


there is always some one ready to support him when 
things go hard. From what you have told me, 
there’s a certain danger that way. It’s natural 
enough, perhaps, considering that Ivan would prob¬ 
ably be dead by now if it hadn’t been for American 
Red Cross help in Siberia. But it’s the wrong prin¬ 
ciple, just the same. He’s fifteen years old, you 
say? ” 

“ Yes, Father; but he looks a lot more.” 

“ H’m! Then he’s old enough to think about go¬ 
ing to work soon.” 

“ I thought maybe he could help out Martin and 
the gardener, washing the car and doing all sorts 
of little jobs about the place.” 

The banker shook his head. 

“ That would only make him a hanger-on, the 
very thing you ought to avoid.” 

“ What kind of work should I put him at, then? ” 

“ That,” said Mr. Oglethorpe, with a smile, “ is 
one of the things you must find out. Study his 
character, his natural desires, his abilities, and act 
accordingly.” 

“ All right. But if he started to work for himself, 
we shouldn’t be helping him! ” 

“ Oh, yes, you would, and far more than if you 
were just supporting him. You can’t put Ivan on 


136 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

his feet all in a minute, of course. You’ll have to 
find out what he can do best, fit him for some par¬ 
ticular trade or line of work, get him a job, start 
him off in it—perhaps apprenticing him, see that he 
has a chance to go to Night School to improve his 
English, and launch him generally. Once he’s solidly 
on his feet, you can begin to help some one else, 
and, likely enough, Ivan will become a supporter of 
the Red Cross instead of a drain on it. Remember 
Thorsson’s story! ” 

The next afternoon, Gavin had a talk with the 
teacher who had organized the Junior Red Cross 
Auxiliary in the school, and he gave Mr. Howard 
“ The Death Train ” to read. 

“ I will use parts of this for dictation in the Eng¬ 
lish Class,” the master said. “ A document of real 
life, such as this, has literary value. Now what do 
you propose to do about the Russian lad? ” 

Gavin repeated the advice his father had given 
him, and suggested that the master should determine 
what line of work the newcomer ought to do. 

“ No. You boys will have to find that out for 
yourselves. Let me see. There are still two months 
of the school term. I suggest that Ivan come to 
school for those two months, not so much for what 
he will learn out of books—though it will improve 


THE JUNIORS—“ I SERVE ” 137 

his English a good deal—but because it will put him 
in actual touch with the rest of the Juniors. Make 
it your business, all of you, to have him realize your 
friendliness. Get him into your sports, and all that 
sort of thing. 

“A good many of you,” Mr. Howard went on, 
“ are apt to regard the Russians as a species of 
barbarians. However false or true that may be, 
you need to understand clearly that such is not the 
Red Cross point of view, for whom humanity is 
everything and nationality is nothing. I have told 
you before that the Red Cross idea is not: ‘America 
against the world/ but, 'America for the- world/ 

“ To have one Russian for a friend is likely to 
give you boys the feeling that there may be a good 
many possible friends among the Russians. It will 
certainly modify your hostile prejudices, if you have 
such. And that is a start toward international 
good feeling.” 

“ Which is a way to stop war, isn’t it, sir? ” 

The master raised his eyebrows slightly. 

“ That is rather a big subject, Gavin, and, with all 
the little wars now going on, world-peace seems far 
away. But certainly, war is less likely to arise be¬ 
tween nations of which the peoples are good friends. 
In any case, the admission of Ivan to your own cir- 


138 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

cle—on the terms of an equal, be it well under¬ 
stood—is the first thing to be done.” 

“ We’ll attend to that, all right! ” agreed Gavin, 
emphatically. 

That evening, he chatted with his father over the 
teacher’s suggestions, and wound up by suggesting: 

“ I suppose we ought to get Ivan a whole new 
outfit, oughtn’t we, so’s he’ll feel dressed like the 
rest of us? ” 

“ How do you propose to get it? ” 

“ Buy it, I thought.” 

“ With what money? ” 

“ Why, with that thousand dollars! ” 

The banker raised a disapproving finger. 

“ You haven’t caught the hang of the Red Cross 
system yet,” he said. “ You should always endeavor 
to extend the opportunities for helping as widely as 
you can, thus lessening the burden on each giver, 
and you should never pay out money except when 
it is imperative. Of course, in a real disaster, such 
as the Boniton tornado, give freely, give enough so 
that the help is a cure and not only a palliative. 
But to come back to this question of clothes for 
Ivan. Do you know Aronson? ” 

“ The clothing-store man? I’ve been in the store, 
that’s all.” 



THE JUNIORS—“ I SERVE ” 


139 


“ Hasn’t he got a little girl in the school? ” 

“ I think he has.” 

“ Tell her the story of Ivan, and have her tell her 
father; maybe your sister can do it better. Then, 
next day, let a couple of you boys go to Aronson. He’s 
a reasonable man. I shouldn’t be surprised if he gave 
you a suit of clothes, for the sake of the Red Cross. 
Anyway, you’d get wholesale prices. Calatto will 
give you all the shoes in his shop if you ask him. 
Don’t go to the Misses Burton; they’d give, but 
they’re poor, and it isn’t fair to ask. Worry around 
a bit. If you’re smart at the job, you ought to be 
able to get everything Ivan needs without spending 
a single cent of the Trust Fund.” 

Gavin squirmed uneasily. 

“ I don’t like to, much. It seems like begging.” 

The banker turned on his son in a swift access of 
irritation. 

“ Who asked you if you liked doing it, or not? 
Put that silly pride in your pocket, and keep it 
there! You can stand a few minutes of unpleasant¬ 
ness for the sake of the Red Cross, can’t you? ” 

Gavin remained silent. He knew better than to 
answer when his father was in that mood. 

The next day, though with dread, he did as he 
was told. Armed with a copy of “ The Train of 


140 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

Death/' and with a letter from the teacher stating 
that he and Will Garfield were authorized by the 
Junior Red Cross Auxiliary to secure an outfit of 
clothing for a Russian refugee, he set out on a round 
among the storekeepers, anticipating rebuff and in¬ 
sult. 

Surprise followed on surprise. Instead of raising 
objections, Aronson fairly broke down on reading 
the “ Train of Death ” article, and offered to give 
everything that was needed. Although Gavin told 
him that they were not collecting money, the store¬ 
keeper insisted on writing out a check for a hun¬ 
dred dollars, “ in the name of my little Miriam," as 
he put it. Calatto gave two pairs of shoes, and 
would have given ten. 

A hatter—whose son was cub reporter on the local 
paper—was equally generous, and next morning 
Ivan’s story was known all over town. Small 
checks and ten-dollar bills poured in, rather to 
Gavin’s embarrassment. Half a dozen people wrote, 
offering the Russian lad a job. Oh, there was no 
doubt of it! An American town, once waked up, is 
about the most generous thing on earth. 

With Ivan’s admission to school the Monday fol¬ 
lowing, the Junior Red Cross Auxiliary took a long 
leap forward. All the boys and girls wanted to work 



Courtesy of American Bed Cross. 

Juniors of the Red Cross making toys for orphans in refugee 
camps, in famine-stricken areas or in war-spent countries. 



Courtesy of American Bed Cross. 


Boy members of the American Junior Red Cross making tables 
for use in hospitals for ex-service men. 


When the Hands Make Good the Words: “I Serve.” 











Courtesy o f American Bed Cross. 

Boy Scouts and Junior Red Cross work closely 

HAND IN HAND. 

First Aid should be part of every boy’s training, and these two 
great organizations unite to make it effective. 
























THE JUNIORS— <c I SERVE ” 141 

for Russia, and for Russia only. But the teacher, 
very wisely, insisted on a continuation of the regular 
programme. 

When the Auxiliary had first been organized the 
year before, shortly after the Boniton tornado, Mr. 
Howard had pointed out that Junior Red Cross 
work might well be divided into five groupings: 
“ Service for Ourselves,’’ “ Service for Our School,” 
“ Service for Our Community,” “ Service for Our 
Country,” and “ Service for Our World.” One after¬ 
noon each week was given to the work, and the 
master had the knack of making that afternoon the 
joiliest of the week. Mr. Howard clearly had ability 
that would not allow him to stay long in his present 
position. 

Ivan’s surprise was without bounds when he 
learned that the Junior Red Cross afternoon meeting 
for that week was at Blake’s Pond. There he found 
that “ Service for Ourselves ” included a number of 
things which he had not in the least expected. 
Swimming was one of them. “ Every Junior a 
swimmer ” was one of the watchwords of the Aux¬ 
iliary. 

The Russian lad had never been in the water, and 
was, by nature, a little timid. But he felt that he 
had the honor of Russia to maintain, and he floun- 


142 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

dered into the water, gasping and choking. The 
boys refrained from teasing, and helped him all they 
could. 

And as he was resting after his first trial, feeling 
as if he had swallowed a barrelful of water, Mr. 
Howard explained to him that proper diet, regular 
exercise, personal cleanliness, orderly neatness, and 
a score of similar things were a part of the “ Service 
for Ourselves ” programme. At the same time, the 
master handled the matters in such a friendly w T ay 
as to make the doing of them seem a pleasure in¬ 
stead of a burden. 

The readiness of the other boys to help him in 
every way spurred Ivan wonderfully. Entirely re¬ 
moved from hearing any Russian spoken, he put into 
use the lessons he had learned in Vladivostok and 
picked up English quickly. No one was more eager 
than he to find out where next week’s Junior Red 
Cross meeting would be held. All that he knew was 
that this time it would be “ Service for Our School.” 

The meeting was not announced for Blake’s Pond, 
but for the basement of the school, where Ivan had 
not been as yet. On entering, he saw a row of car¬ 
pentering-benches, a small forge, a machine-lathe, 
and all the appliances of an up-to-date workshop. 
The girls had the other half of the basement, with 


THE JUNIORS—“ I SERVE ” 143 

sewing-machines, hand-looms, stocking-knitters, em¬ 
broidery frames, and a big kitchen. 

As soon as they came in, some of the boys of his 
group started in at once to make window-boxes and 
book-shelves for the schoolrooms, or equipment for 
the playground. A good many were making picture- 
frames. One group of four was busy over a roll- 
map cupboard, which, with all its fittings and 
springs, was a long and troublesome job. 

“ Did you notice Mr. Howard’s desk, Ivan? ” 
asked Gavin. 

“ Much carved one? Yes.” 

“ We made that! ” came the proud declaration. 

Ivan looked up eagerly. 

“ Carve, I like do! In winter, all Russian boys 
carve. Father, very good; show me many things. 
Lot designs. Quite different! ” 

“ Say, chaps,” Gavin called out, excitedly, “ we’ve 
a new Little Wonder in our midst. Ivan knows all 
about the Russian style of wood-carving! ” 

They clustered around him, and Ivan, flushed with 
pleasure, picked up one of the tools. From the first 
minute it was in his hand, the boys had no doubt 
of his skill. Ivan understood the technique of carv¬ 
ing and had a real talent for it, though it was evi¬ 
dent that the grain of the wood was very different 


144 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

from the white birch to which he had been accus¬ 
tomed. 

Gavin, watching closely, began to see a line open¬ 
ing out which might solve the question of Ivan’s fu¬ 
ture. Certainly there was a place in America for 
so skilful and patient a wood-worker as the Russian 
boy bade fair to become. 

The following Tuesday came the third Red Cross 
Auxiliary day, for “ Service to the Community.” 
On coming to the schoolhouse door—having previ¬ 
ously been told to put on his heaviest shoes—Ivan 
was surprised at being handed a pair of heavy leather 
gloves and a stout saw-edged knife. He put on the 
gloves and followed one of the groups of boys, led 
by Will Garfield. 

Coming to a big stretch of vacant land, the half- 
dozen lads scattered. Will stooped down at once, 
and grabbed a vine trailing along the ground. 

“ See this stuff, Ivan?” he said, speaking very 
distinctly. “ It’s poison—we call it poison ivy. It 
doesn’t hurt some people at all, even if they touch 
it; some people are poisoned if they just touch it 
by accident; and there are some people who catch 
the poison so easily that they get ill just by walking 
near it. The man who owns this bit of land doesn’t 
live here. So we’re going to clean the place up, so 


THE JUNIORS— u I SERVE ” 145 

that the poison ivy won’t spread. It’s hard to kill, 
but if it’s cut down, an inch or two below the ground, 
every spring, year after year, the roots die out.” 

“ Right! Very good! Sure! ” declared Ivan, in 
complete understanding, and plunged at the work 
enthusiastically. 

“ Of course,” Will explained, as they worked side 
by side, “ we don’t do this every Community Day. 
Sometimes, when it’s very hot, we go to Blake’s 
Pond and learn how to save drowning people—that’s 
service for the community, too. In bad weather, we 
learn First Aid—they taught you that at Vladi¬ 
vostok, didn’t they? When there’s something big 
going on in town, a parade, or something like that, 
we help in one way and the Boy Scouts in another. 

“ The Junior Red Cross girls do a lot, too, for the 
community. They help out at the milk stations 
for babies, the older ones do follow-up work for the 
Community Visiting Nurse, and they give a hand in 
arranging a summer camp for city girls from the 
slums, who never have much chance to be in the 
country.” 

“ That is all good to do! ” affirmed Ivan, and he 
worked all the harder because of the thought that 
he was but one of many, all engaged in community 


service. 


146 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

The following week it was the turn for “ Service 
to Our Country.’’ 

“ I do guess this time will be work for soldiers 
hurt in war? ” the Russian lad suggested, eager to 
show his interest. 

Gavin shook his head. 

“ No,” he answered. “ That job is too big for us 
Juniors. Wounded ex-service men are well looked 
after by the United States Government. The Red 
Cross does a good deal in bringing them in touch 
with the right people in Washington, so’s they get 
everything they ought to have. But, as you heard 
Mr. Howard say the other day, we oughtn’t to try 
to undertake anything that some one is doing al¬ 
ready.” 

“ Right—so! ” agreed Ivan. 

“ Being Juniors,” Gavin continued, “ it’s more our 
end to help fellows of our own age, fellows who 
haven’t got the same chances that we have, either 
because they’re poor, or because they live ’way in 
the backwoods, or something like that. 

“ Last year we fitted up a whole playground for a 
school in the mountains of Tennessee, we gave them 
baseball uniforms and an outfit, and subscribed 
enough to send a college chap there for a month to 
•teach them the game. You wouldn’t think it, but 


THE JUNIORS—“ I SERVE ” 147 

that baseball team has done more to stop feud shoot¬ 
ing in that valley than twenty years of preaching 
had done,” and he proceeded to explain to Ivan the 
feud menace in certain sections of the Southern Al- 
leghanies. 

“ This winter,” Gavin added, “ we made some spe¬ 
cial-sized tables and chairs for crippled negro chil¬ 
dren, who’d been treated in an Orthopedic Hospital 
in New Orleans and were going back to their cabin 
homes. Right now we’re starting in on some stuff 
that’s needed for the Indians. Plenty of work for 
your tools, I shouldn’t wonder! ” 

But it was the fifth week, especially, which 
thrilled Ivan. There were five Tuesdays in that 
month, so that “ Service for Our World ” had a spe¬ 
cial afternoon to itself, instead of being sandwiched 
in between other affairs. It was the regular work 
of this international afternoon, which had brought 
about Gavin’s discontented remark about the use¬ 
lessness of foreign letter-writing, and the unimpor¬ 
tance of sending portfolios and scrap-books. 

“ I have received a letter from a school in Fiji,” 
the master announced that morning, “ in which the 
children state their desire to make a collection of 
wild flowers of all countries, pressed, of course, and 
prepared so that their colors do not fade. There 


148 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

are beautiful sea-shells in Fiji—some of them very 
rare — an d the Fijian children offer to send a collec¬ 
tion to our school museum in exchange. Do you 
want to undertake that work? ” 

There was a manifest hesitation. A good many 
of the boys thought to themselves that picking flow¬ 
ers was more like girls’ work. 

The master’s tone took on a crisper note. 

“ I am very well aware that some of you,” he said, 
and fixed on Gavin an accusing eye, “ fail to realize 
the importance of Junior Red Cross School Cor¬ 
respondence. It has a great deal of value, far more 
than you imagine. 

“ In the first place, it teaches you to write fairly 
good letters—and I am sorry to say that there are 
very few of those boys now sitting before me who 
are able to send letters as courteous and well-phrased 
as those done by boys of your own age in Europe. 
In the second place, it enlivens your interest in 
geography, of which subject, I have been grieved to 
note, you show an appalling ignorance; I am quite 
sure that you know a great deal more about Prague, 
with which city you corresponded last year, than 
about Fiji, because you have only read the name of 
the latter place on a map. In the third place, such 
letters and such exchanges of portfolios take the 


THE JUNIORS—“ I SERVE ” 149 

place of travel, to a small degree, and the travelled 
man is the well-informed man. 

“ With regard to the portfolios, of which also I 
have heard some criticism ”—Gavin began to feel 
very small indeed, “ I am afraid that I must remark 
that those who do not support the making of them 
are governed either by laziness, or indifference—or 
both. They do not grasp the fact that such should 
be prepared with great care and with a proud 
pleasure. 

“ The portfolio we received from Prague last year 
is a pride of this school, as you well know. We show 
it to all our visitors. We exhibited it at the County 
Fair. Some of you know it almost by heart. We 
feel that the children whose faces and whose work 
we see there are our comrades, and we should rec¬ 
ognize them and welcome them as old friends, were 
they to come here. I wish that I were not com¬ 
pelled to recognize that the portfolio we sent them 
in return was so inferior to theirs! ” 

“ We could send another, sir! ” piped up a voice 
from the back of the schoolroom. 

“ That is Brocker speaking, is it? I am glad to 
hear you suggest that, Brocker, for I remember how 
little trouble you took last time. We will send an¬ 
other, and we will make it such that the school at 



150 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

Prague will be as proud of its American portfolio as 
we are of our Bohemian, or rather, Czech exhibit. 
Now, as to this Fiji project, raise your hands, those 
of you who are willing to contribute your work.” 

Most, but not all, hands were raised. 

“ All those who have agreed to share in the 
‘ Service for Fiji * will meet me this afternoon, at 
the usual hour, at Mill Bridge. Bring a dozen sheets 
of blotting-paper with you, each one—clean blot¬ 
ting-paper, of course. After we come back and 
while we are arranging our collections, Ivan may be 
able to give us some idea as to what we might do 
for his home city, Samara.” 

The tone grew cutting! 

“ The others who do not come,” he paused, “ will 
have the pleasure of staying at home or wandering 
about the streets doing nothing. A fine way of 
showing your Red Cross spirit! ” 

At Mill Bridge, that afternoon, a surprise was 
awaiting them. An old gentleman, with straggling 
white hair, a large herbarium slung over his shoul¬ 
der, stood there. Several of the boys rushed for¬ 
ward. 

“ Oh, Doctor! Are you coming with us? ” 

“ I had thought of doing so.” 

“ Fine! ” “ Great! ” came the cries in chorus. 



THE JUNIORS— u I SERVE ” 


151 


And Gavin added, to Ivan: 

“Now we will learn something about flowers! 
Dr. Wandsworth is one of the greatest botanists 
in the country and he’s just chock full of the jolliest 
stories about plants! ” 

“ Remember the stories I tell you, then/’ laughed 
the merry old doctor. “ Mr. Howard has told me 
what you intend to do. And I’m not so sure if the 
children in Fiji wouldn’t be more interested in know¬ 
ing that the sunflower turns its head with the sun, 
that the pimpernel foretells the weather by chang¬ 
ing color, that the tumbleweed picks itself up and 
takes a walk every season, and that the sundew eats 
flies than they would be in knowing the Latin names 
and botanical characters of those plants—though 
you ought to tell that, too, in your portfolio. But 
you’ll have to keep your ears open! ” 

That afternoon ramble was a revelation to every 
one, Mr. Howard included. The old botanist led the 
boys into a world of strange adventure and curious 
romance, or so it seemed by the way he told of the 
lives of plants and their flowers, of their plucky 
fights against the hardships of weather or unfavor¬ 
able soil, of the race for sun and air, of the peculiar 
fashion in which certain species chum with other 
chosen species, of the magical influence of perfume, 


152 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

of the long-laid plots to attract insects, and of the 
acrobatic feats or aeroplane ventures which seeds 
undertake in order to launch out into the unknown. 

Gavin was not the only boy who stayed up late 
that night, scribbling at top speed all that he could 
remember of the old botanist’s stories. For the first 
time in his life, the boy really thought of plants and 
flowers as living things, with a sort of consciousness 
of their own. Never, after that afternoon, did he 
look at a plant or a flower with lack of interest; 
Dr. Wandsworth had given him the seeing eye. 

“ And if I were you/’ the doctor had said before 
leaving, “ when you write to Fiji, I would suggest to 
the Fijian children that they tell you all the stories 
they know about the creatures which lived in the 
sea-shells they’re going to send you. You’ve no idea 
what wonderful tales lie hidden in that green mys¬ 
tery-world below the surface of the sea! ” 

It was not until the next month had brought 
around another international Red Cross meeting, at 
almost the last reunion of the school year, that Ivan 
summoned up enough courage to address his com¬ 
rades on what he considered to be the needs of his 
home town in Russia, a thing that the boys were 
wildly anxious to hear. The lad was able to speak 
fairly good English now, though slowly and jerkily. 


THE JUNIORS—“ I SERVE ” 


153 


“ I now understand/' he said, hesitatingly, after 
he had given quite a good description of his town 
and of his childhood life there, “ that, in Red Cross 
seeing, a country good-governed and a country bad- 
governed is all the same thing. The children are 
not the governments. Russian children—Bolshevik 
children—Menshivik children—are not more good, 
not more bad, than French children or Turkish chil¬ 
dren. We are to help all. 

“ You wish me tell what is best for Russian chil¬ 
dren. I say—play! In America, I see very much 
play, very, very much; in Russia, no play. No 
sport. No games. It is not much fun. Either very 
serious or very much mischief. Bad mischief, be¬ 
cause life dull. Play cards much—not good. It 
can teach nothing good. 

“ I say—tell Samara boys how play. Not big 
games, not baseball, tennis, not at beginning. Too 
difficult. Fathers—mothers—not understand. Play¬ 
ground games better: Prisoner’s Base, Hoop-and- 
Spear, Leap-the-Frog, Toad-in-the-Hole, Pitching- 
the-Horseshoe. I write letters in Russian, tell how; 
you make American photographs, show how. 
Health game, too! ” 

“ That’s a rattling good idea, fellows,” com¬ 
mented Will Garfield. “ I see Ivan’s scheme. Some 


154 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

of us have got cameras, and we could take a whole 
series of illustrative snap-shots.” 

“ Why not take moving pictures? ” suggested 
Gavin. “ We could get up regular teams, practise 
those games until we had 'em down fine, and then 
send the films over to Russia. I'm sure we could 
get the loan of a camera, and maybe a camera man, 
from one of the big film companies, if they knew 
we were doing it for the Red Cross.” 

“ Maybe, later,” returned Will. “ But what use 
would that be in Ivan's town? The fellows in Sa¬ 
mara wouldn't have projection machines in their 
schools, nor yet electric power in their playgrounds! 
That’s a good idea of yours, Gavin, and we might do 
it later, for more up-to-date places. But to start off 
with, the regular photos would be a help. Any of 
us can take < stills,’ and my cousin has a cracker- 
jack of a high-speed camera, to catch us running or 
jumping. He's pretty busy, but with ‘ daylight-sav¬ 
ing ’ hours, he could help us out during June and 
July, when the light would be just right. What do 
you say if we get together once a week during the 
summer holidays, and do the job up thoroughly? ” 

And the plan went through with a whoop! 


CHAPTER VII 


A LAND OF REFUGEES 

After the closing of school, the question of Ivan’s 
career demanded immediate attention. Gavin, 
largely aided by his father’s suggestions, set him¬ 
self seriously to determine what was best to be done. 

The Russian lad’s deftness with wood-working 
tools gave a clue to one way by which he might earn 
his living. First by correspondence, and afterwards 
by a personal visit, Gavin got in touch with a furni¬ 
ture manufactory, specializing in hand-made articles 
for the first-class trade, a factory where solid wood 
was used instead of veneer, and where good taste 
was considered more important than quantity pro¬ 
duction. There Ivan’s gift for carving would be ap¬ 
preciated, especially by those connoisseurs w T ho de¬ 
sire good furniture, made after their own patterns, 
and who seek for real craftsman work. 

In order that the Russian lad should start on his 
new life happily, Gavin found him a room in a 
boarding-house with sympathetic people, to whom, 
also, he gave the “ Train of Death ” article to read, 

155 


156 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

sure that this would deepen their interest in the 
young refugee. He also persuaded Ivan to join the 
Young Men’s Association of the town. 

Gavin paid his protege’s membership in the Asso¬ 
ciation for three months, and also gave him the 
equivalent of one week’s wages in advance. This 
sum of thirty-five dollars was all that had been paid 
out of the Junior Red Cross Service Fund, which 
had risen by voluntary contributions to nearly 
fifteen hundred dollars. Ivan promised to write 
fully to the Auxiliary, at least once a month, so that 
he might maintain a close relationship with the Red 
Cross. 

School over, and Ivan settled, Gavin began to 
grow restless. The making of photos for the pro¬ 
gramme of games, to be sent to Samara, was in the 
hands of an efficient committee. The money in the 
fund troubled him not a little, for it did not seem 
fair to have the cash lying idle, when there were so 
many people in the world to be helped. His en¬ 
thusiasm for the Red Cross, which had been begun 
by Martin’s insistence that he should visit the scene 
of the Boniton tornado disaster, did not die out, as 
his father had expected. On the contrary, it seemed 
to have put down deep roots. 

Mr. Oglethorpe himself, intent on planning the 


A LAND OF REFUGEES 


157 


organization of a Red Cross Chapter, which should 
take over the direction of all the relief work in his 
own county, was not less enthralled. But, on Mr. 
Stewart’s advice, he delayed the actual organization 
until he should have had the opportunity of visiting 
other Chapters, both in America and abroad, in or¬ 
der to observe their systems and to learn the 
methods which more experienced Chapter chairmen 
had found most efficient for speedy and yet eco¬ 
nomical administration. 

Father and son were thus hand-in-hand in all Red 
Cross ideas, and Mrs. Oglethorpe—whose prefer¬ 
ences were for the social amenities which had been 
her only life—complained, half seriously, that her 
all-important bridge parties, teas, and club meetings 
no longer seemed to be of any great interest to her 
household. It was not that she did not appreciate 
the work of the Red Cross, and she was generous 
with gifts from her private fortune, but, having been 
brought up in retirement, she had a strong dislike 
of coming in personal contact with wretchedness and 
suffering. 

“ If you are so intensely interested in those foreign 
people who are in trouble,” said she to her husband, 
" and if Gavin is so absurdly taken up with Russian 
runaways and Fijian sea-shell gatherers”—this was 


158 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


a gentle little dig at the Auxiliary, “ why don’t you 
go abroad and risk catching typhus or some horrid 
thing like that yourselves this summer, while I go, 
as usual, to White Sulphur Springs. I know very 
well that you don’t like it there.” 

This was an opening for which the banker had 
been hoping, for while, like many really busy men, 
he hated summer resorts and their actively empty 
life, he did not wish his wife to feel that he was 
allowing his Red Cross interests to interfere with the 
life of the home. 

“ That’s an excellent idea of yours, Laura,” he 
answered. “ A few months abroad—perhaps in the 
Mediterranean—would do Gavin a great deal of 
good. I will admit that, so far as I am concerned, 
I’m greatly interested in what is happening in 
Greece right now. But are you sure that you 
wouldn’t like to come to Europe, and to have a 
season in Biarritz or Deauville, or some of those 
fashionable watering-places? ” 

The woman shook her head decidedly. 

“ I have never been on the sea, and I am afraid 
of it,” she said. “ I feel certain that if I were sea¬ 
sick—and I should be sure to be—my nerves would 
give me trouble all the rest of the season. No, I 
prefer White Sulphur Springs. The society there 



A LAND OF REFUGEES 159 

is very pleasant, and the waters agree admirably 
with my constitution.” 

“ At what time would you prefer to go there? ” 

Mrs. Oglethorpe looked at her husband with a 
twinkle in her eye. 

“ John,” she said, “ you’re not at all good at hid¬ 
ing things, though you believe you are. Do you 
suppose I haven’t noticed that you are anxious to 
get away? ” 

“ I’m sure I haven’t ever said so much as a single 
word about it! ” 

“ No, dear, and I know you wouldn’t. But, just 
the same, the idea has underlain a good many of 
your talks with Gavin. There, there, make your 
plans! Go to Greece or wherever it is you want to 
go. I will ask Mother to come and stay here until 
the season opens at White Sulphur Springs, and we 
will go there together. But be careful of yourself, 
John, and of Gavin especially! I don’t want to see 
you coming back like refugees yourselves! ” 

“ No fear, Laura! ” the banker laughed. “ Well, 
if it doesn’t disturb your plans at all, I’d like to start 
about June 10.” 

“ That’s next week! ” 

“ Next Tuesday. There’s a boat sailing for Naples 
the day after. We could take the train across Italy 


160 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

to Brindisi, connecting with a boat for Saloniki, and 
we’d get to Greece about the 28th. I’d like to be 
there before the 30th.” 

“ May I ask just why? ” 

“ The Red Cross relief work in Greece is going to 
be wound up on that date, and I’d like to see the 
refugee camps in full action before they close up 
for good. Then, so Stewart tells me, there are likely 
to be a good many complications for the first two 
or three weeks after the American Red Cross gives 
up its work, and individual non-official workers may 
be of service.” 

“ Then telegraph at once for a cabin, Robert, and 
arrange matters just as you think best. Will you 
take Martin with you? ” 

“ Yes, I’d thought of doing so.” 

“ And the car? ” 

“ No. I’ll have the car ready to take you down 
to White Sulphur Springs. You won’t need Martin. 
The Burtons’ chauffeur will be at liberty—they’re 
taking the Thousand Lakes trip this season—and I 
can arrange for him to take charge of the car. He’s 
a good man, and a careful driver, as you know. I’ll 
cable to have an automobile waiting for me at 
Saloniki.” 

“ Very good. I will see that your trunks are 


A LAND OF REFUGEES 161 

packed and that everything is ready, just the way 
you like it.” 

Thus it happened that, a few weeks later, Mr. 
Oglethorpe, Gavin, and Martin found themselves 
on a Greek steamer, running from the Island of 
Corfu to Saloniki, accompanied by a young Greek 
relief-worker who had been with the American Red 
Cross when the refugee work first began, and who 
was returning from Genoa, where he had escorted 
a party of Greek refugees, emigrating to the Argen¬ 
tine Republic. 

“ I’ve never quite understood, Father, how Greece 
got into such a mess as to need all this relief work,” 
Gavin remarked, as the boat steamed through the 
^Egean Sea. 

“ I’m sure I couldn’t tell you the details,” the 
banker replied; “ you’ll have to ask Mr. Saripoulos 
if you want to know them all. I’ve talked to a 
good many people about modern Greek affairs, and 
the various accounts all seem to disagree. 

“ Roughly, so far as I can make out, the whole 
trouble arises from the unsettled treaty complica¬ 
tions that followed the World War. It takes a Bal¬ 
kan expert to thread his way through that tangle. 
Generally speaking, Turkey wasn’t kicked out of 
Europe, as a good many people wanted her to be, 


162 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


largely because the Powers couldn’t agree as to 
which of them should control Constantinople and 
the Bosphorus. Greece, because of her claim to all 
the territories of the old Byzantine Empire, has al¬ 
ways insisted that Constantinople ought to be in her 
hands, but the way she blew hot and cold during 
the War had hurt her standing.” 

“ Still, when you look at the map/’ said Gavin, 
“ it does look as though Constantinople ought to go 
to Greece, if Turkey is kicked out. And her his¬ 
torical claim seems fair enough.” 

“ That may be all right in theory, son, but not in 
practice. In order to shut Russia out of the Medi¬ 
terranean, Constantinople must either be held by a 
single strong Power, or else by a figurehead Power 
which is willing to act as a mere mouthpiece for a 
consortium of all the Allied Powers. 

“ Greece is neither one nor the other. She is one 
of the weakest of the Powers, her politics are in a 
constant turmoil, she is bitterly hated by all her 
neighbors, she is a trouble-maker on every occasion, 
and the placing of Greece on the Bosphorus would 
only be the signal for another Balkan War. Bulgaria 
demands an outlet to the Mediterranean, and is just 
aching for a chance to pick up arms. The Powers 
of Europe, whose business it is to try to maintain 



Courtesy of L'Illustration. 


Greeks driven forth from Turkish territory by the Lausanne 
Convention, having no place to go. 



Turks shipped out of Greek territory, according to Lausanne 
Convention, homeless and destitute. 

Exchanging Populations by Treaty. 






Courtesy of American Red Cross. 


American Red Cross volunteers transcribing Braille, a system of 
embossed letters so arranged that the blind may read 
with their finger-tips. 



Courtesy of Underwood & Underwood. 


Turkish Red Crescent volunteers making bandages, splints, and 
clothing for the wounded, without distinction of race or creed. 


Where Cross and Crescent Meet. 














A LAND OF REFUGEES 163 


peace, couldn’t afford to let Greece occupy Constan¬ 
tinople, for the Near East would blow up immedi¬ 
ately. 

“ Consequently, when the World War came to an 
end, Greece’s aspirations were denied, and the ques¬ 
tion of Constantinople was left open. The various 
treaties since concluded have ended, as you know, in 
Turkey retaining a large share of her European pos¬ 
sessions—including Eastern Thrace—and much of 
her territory in Asia Minor. In this Turkish terri¬ 
tory there are a number of Greeks living, just as 
parts of Greece are thoroughly Turkish.” 

“ I begin to see where the hitch comes,” said 
Gavin, thoughtfully. 

“ There’s always a hitch when territorial and 
racial boundaries don’t agree. That’s why the Bal¬ 
kan States will never be peaceful, can never be 
peaceful. Hostile races, with age-long hates as well 
as religious antagonisms, live side by side. 

“ In defiance of the Powers, and in spite of the 
fact that the political situation in Greece was in¬ 
tolerable, Greece started a war against Turkey last 
year. It was intended, apparently, as a political 
dodge, to get the Powers into the mess. After a 
few initial victories, the Greek armies in Asia Minor 
began to get the worst of it, and then, as the Turks 




164 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

began to warm up a bit, the Greeks got thoroughly 
whipped. The troops fled in retreat to Smyrna, 
barely able to get their army past the hordes of flee¬ 
ing refugees. Just when the city was full to burst¬ 
ing, when the Turks were close behind, and nearly 
every vessel had left the harbor, Smyrna was set on 
fire.” 

“ By the Turks? ” 

The banker shrugged his shoulders. 

“ No one seems to know, definitely. It wasn’t 
done by the Turkish Army, that’s clear, for it was 
still a couple of days’ march away. It may have 
been begun by Turkish incendiaries in the city, or 
even by accident—though that seems improbable. 
The Greeks who were hostile to the government were 
formally accused of the crime, and suspicion also 
fell on the lower elements of the Levantine popu¬ 
lation and the riff-raff of the refugees, seeking a 
chance for loot. Whoever started it, the fire spread 
rapidly and became one of the most appalling dis¬ 
asters of its kind in modern times. With the Turks 
behind, the sea in front and the city burning over 
their heads, the refugees and the inhabitants of 
Smyrna were mad with terror. The number of 
deaths has never been known. 

“ At the same time, the news of the Turkish vie- 


A LAND OF REFUGEES 


165 


tories gave Turkish officials, all over the Ottoman 
Empire, the signal for repressive massacres. Every¬ 
where a rage of persecution began. Then began, so 
a Red Cross man who was there told me, the most 
pitiful and tragic flight of modern times, even more 
heartrending than that from Belgium at the begin¬ 
ning of the World War, for the fugitives came vast 
distances, fleeing in any direction, anywhere away 
from the Turks. Armenians, Greeks, Macedonians, 
and a motley of peoples poured into Western 
Thrace and the iEgean islands. By last October, 
nearly a million and a quarter refugees had reached 
Greece and there was no means of feeding or hous¬ 
ing them. The suffering was terrible. Worst of all, 
there was the menace of epidemic disease. 

“ The United States took immediate action. 
President Harding called a meeting of the repre¬ 
sentatives of several big American relief organiza¬ 
tions, and a working agreement was made by which 
the American Red Cross and the Near East Relief 
were ordered to take charge of the situation under 
the general direction of the Red Cross, it being un¬ 
derstood that the Red Cross was to deal with the 
emergency in Europe, and the Near East Relief in 
Asia. Constantinople was used for warehousing and 
similar purposes, as in nearly all Near East work. A 


166 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

special fund was created and several millions of dol¬ 
lars raised. 

“Five days after this proclamation/’ the banker 
went on, “ a number of experienced relief-workers 
sailed from America. Red Cross nurses in Europe 
were directed by cable to report for work at Athens 
and Saloniki. Purchasing units were set up in New 
York and at various points in Europe, and you can 
get some idea of the work done, Gavin, when I tell 
you that I saw in a Red Cross Report that 16,213 
tons of flour were distributed in a little over seven 
months. About 4,000 tons of other foodstuffs were 
shipped. 

“ Fortunately, the Greeks are accustomed to the 
simplest food. Some coarse bread, olive oil, fruit, 
and an occasional dish of vegetables was all they re¬ 
quired. As you can see, son, this enabled an amaz¬ 
ing amount of work to be done at a comparatively 
low cost.” 

“ The people at Boniton fared better than that,” 
put in the boy, remembering the piles of food which 
Martin had collected within a few hours of the pass¬ 
ing of the tornado. 

“ Yes, that’s one of the Red Cross difficulties in 
America, so I’m told. Sufferers from a disaster in 
the States aren’t always grateful for getting bare ne- 


A LAND OF REFUGEES 167 

cessities, they expect luxuries. It’s a lot easier to 
help a people of simple habits. 

“ For example, the clothing question wasn’t seri¬ 
ous in Greece. Less than a million garments were 
sent, of all kinds, and only 5,000 pairs of shoes. Go¬ 
ing barefoot, to most of the refugees, was no great 
hardship. But imagine the fuss in the States if the 
victims of a disaster were made to go without shoes! 
That very simplicity was what made Red Cross 
work in Greece so successful. In less than two weeks 
after the arrival of the Americans, shelter camps had 
been organized, bake-ovens built, a regular transport 
system started, and every refugee was getting food 
enough to keep him or her in good condition.” 

“ That was quick work! ” cried Gavin. 

“ Quickness is the essential virtue in an emer¬ 
gency. You saw that at Boniton! 

“ Of course, as always, the biggest danger of mass¬ 
ing all sorts of people in a narrow space is the pos¬ 
sible outbreak of an epidemic. The American Red 
Cross had taken a staff of medical men, and these 
took the Greek doctors in hand and gave them an 
idea of Red Cross methods. Surprisingly quick to 
learn those Greek doctors were, too, so I’m told. 
Typhus, smallpox, and dysentery all broke out, but 
so closely was the Red Cross on the job that every 


168 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

outbreak was stamped down before it had a chance 
to become epidemic.” 

He turned to the Greek relief-worker, who had 
just sauntered up. 

“ You had a good deal of trouble with typhus in 
the camps, didn’t you? ” he asked, by way of getting 
the Greek started on what was sure to be interesting 
information. 

“ Only at the beginning,” came the reply. “ The 
Americans brought forty tons of soap. That helped, 
I think. Oh, yes, typhus would have made many 
dead people if it hadn’t been for the Red Cross. 
You see, w T e hadn’t any organization to take care 
of the refugees. We couldn’t have. Every bit of 
the energy in Greece was being put into the War, 
yes. The worst was that the politicians in Athens 
were too much in their personal quarrels to help 
anybody, I think. 

“ Me, I was just going to sail for the front, but 
when I was on the quay at Piraeus I saw a ship of 
refugees come in. I had a commission as an officer, 
yes. I tore it up, and said I would stay in Greece 
to help.” 

He laughed, a little bitterly. 

“ They wanted to shoot me for a traitor, because 
—so the quite-military colonel said—it was more 



A LAND OF REFUGEES 169 


patriotic to shoot Turks than to feed Greeks. I told 
him I was a Greek-feeder first and a Turk-shooter 
by and by.” 

“ Didn’t they court-martial you, or something of 
the kind, Mr. Saripoulos? ” 

The Greek nodded. 

“ Oh, I should have been shot, I think, but the 
cable news came that the American Red Cross was 
sending a relief ship. So the quite-military colonel 
set me free to do Greek-feeding. That was to show 
the Americans that somebody was already doing 
refugee relief work, I think. It was much needed. 
The two weeks before the Americans came, I was 
like the four winds all blowing at once, here, there, 
and my head twisted trying to do everywhere. That 
was before I had learned how.” 

“ The refugees were in bad condition, I suppose? ” 

“ Quite desperate. That ship-load came from 
somewhere in the Taurus. They had not eaten 
much in three weeks, I think. A good many were 
ill—but the hospitals were already overfull. Four 
people were mad, oh, raving mad; three women and 
one man. I had no place to put them. They dis¬ 
appeared one night. Their comrades threw them 
into the sea, I think. 

“ There was one week I did not know what would 


170 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

happen. Two more ship-loads like that came in to 
the port. One captain came to me and offered to 
take his human cargo out to sea again and to throw 
them overboard, to give more food to the Greeks. 
They were Armenians, I think.” 

“ What! Offered to drown a whole ship-load? ” 

“ He wanted five drachmas a head, I think. He 
said it would be much cheaper than feeding them. 
He thought I would be pleased, I think.” 

“ What did you do to him? ” 

“ Me? What could I do? It was no use to dis¬ 
cuss. I told him he would get more money by going 
to Alexandria for a cargo of wheat. So he landed 
the Armenians, and went. They were nearly all 
women and children, whose men-folk had been killed 
or were held as prisoners by the Turks. That is 
nearly the same thing, I think.” 

“ But didn’t Greece herself try to do anything, 
Mr. Saripoulos? ” 

“ Oh, we did a great deal, as soon as we were 
shown how. That was the most shining work of 
the Red Cross, I think. The Americans were only 
forty-five, but there were several hundred of us, by 
and by, doctors and assistants. 

“ The Red Cross made friends quickly, everywhere, 
which is strange, because the Greeks are suspicious 


A LAND OF REFUGEES 171 


of foreigners, I think. But we saw that the Ameri¬ 
cans had come only to help us, not to be our masters. 
They did not begin politics nor religion, and that 
was a good thing, I think. In less than a month, 
most of the distribution of supplies had been put in 
our hands. That surprised everybody, I think.” 

“ Wasn’t there some trouble about it, though? ” 

“ Yes, Mr. Oglethorpe, but that was to be ex¬ 
pected, I think. When, before, had anything with 
public money been done honestly in Greece? But 
as soon as we saw that the American Red Cross was 
honest, all the good people were glad, I think. We 
stood three profiteers against a wall one morning.” 

“And shot them?” queried Gavin, excitedly. 

“ Oh, yes,” the Greek answered indifferently. 

“ Without any trial? ” 

“ Law is so slow, I think. The people of the 
camps were quite pleased, I think. Once the Red 
Cross had started us, all went very well.” 

“ There was another reason for that, too,” put in 
Oglethorpe, “ from what the Red Cross people told 
me at Headquarters. The refugees, themselves, be¬ 
ing directed by people who knew their language, cus¬ 
toms and prejudices, were handled more economic¬ 
ally and with far less friction than if they had been 
managed by an all-American staff. And that’s why, 


172 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

now the Red Cross is getting ready to leave, the 
refugees are ready to accept direction under their 
own countrymen.” 

“ They never would have been before,” put in 
Saripoulos. “ But we’re thoroughly organized now, 
I think.” 

“ But just why is the Red Cross getting out so 
suddenly? ” queried Gavin. 

“ Because it is purely an emergency organization,” 
his father explained. “ If I have the idea right, it is 
the business of the Red Cross to bear the first brunt 
of disaster. Its main purpose is to relieve immediate 
distress, to organize temporary assistance, and to 
give the local agencies and institutions of a country 
the time and opportunity to prepare themselves to 
take over the burden which the Red Cross has car¬ 
ried during the emergency. 

“ Then, so it was explained to me in New York, 
relief camps are as injurious when an emergency is 
over as they are beneficial in times of stress. A 
month too long, even a week too long, is dangerous. 
The camps breed laziness, dependence, and indiffer¬ 
ence. As long as people can get housed and fed for 
nothing, and get a chance to idle around all day, 
they won’t work.” 

“ That’s certainly true with my people,” the 


A LAND OF REFUGEES 


173 


Greek agreed, “ and we shall have much trouble to 
meet, I think. Fortunately, the Red Cross is turn¬ 
ing over the work to us just at the very right time. 
The crops have been good, the fruit season is be¬ 
ginning, and, because the Red Cross brought two 
tons of vegetable seeds which it distributed free, a 
large amount of extra vegetables have been grown. 
The war is over, so that the Government can begin 
to think about something else besides the Army. 
The summer time is always easier for the poor. 
And, for the first few weeks, we have enough food. 
But we shall give them less to eat, I think.” 

“ Why? ” 

“ So that they will get hungry, very hungry,” was 
the Greek’s calm reply. “ They will be more ready 
to work, then. Of course, there is much bad to 
come, I think.” 

“ For what reason? ” 

“ The refugees have brought an additional million 
of people to the population of Greece. Many of 
them, most, I think, are from the country. Now 
they have no land. There is no free land in Greece 
to give them. They must find work, where there is 
no work, and food, when we have only just enough 
for our people—without that million. And a million 
mouths eat very much in a year! 



174 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“But that is not the worst. According to the 
proposed treaty, Turkey is to have the right to 
expel Greeks from her land, in exchange for the 
Turks which we drive out, too. That is difficult, I 
think. Those who go are angry, those who come are 
discontented. All have lost their homes.” 

“ You anticipate real trouble, Mr. Saripoulos? ” 

“ Of course, yes, I think. People do not pour 
from one country to another like wine from one jug 
to another. And it is certain that the Greek and 
the Turk are not lovers. There will be another war, 
I think.” 

“ Right away? ” 

“ No, later on, I think. But a big illness will make 
trouble, and there will be much malaria this autumn, 
I think. There are so many refugees in the malaria- 
infested districts. Those are the least populated 
places, and the over-supply must go somewhere.” 

“ Does the Red Cross know about that? ” 

The Greek nodded. 

“ A good deal of quinine is being left, all the doc¬ 
tors have been instructed in Red Cross malaria- 
fighting methods, and the camps are free of it. But 
the refugees will not be so careful when the Red 
Cross is gone. If you are staying here, Mr. Ogle¬ 
thorpe, you will see something, I think.” 


175 


A LAND OF REFUGEES 

» 

While he expected to see things on a large scale, 
none the less Oglethorpe was amazed when, next 
day, he was taken to the great refugee camp a little 
distance from Saloniki. Eighty thousand refugees 
were gathered in this great temporary city, built of 
tents and huts, and all scrupulously clean. There 
were but six American Red Cross relief-workers in 
charge, but the Greek assistants under them were 
working like clockwork. All moved in an orderly 
routine, but the refugees were manifestly in a dis¬ 
contented mood. More than half of them had re¬ 
ceived notice that they must leave the camp the 
week following, and the prospect of returning to 
work'was not attractive. 

“ Aren’t you afraid that some of them will turn 
brigands? ” queried the banker. 

“ Undoubtedly! But we have drafted a good 
many of them into a temporary police. We must 
expect to go through a troubled period, I think.” 

“ And the women and children? ” 

Saripoulos shrugged his shoulders. 

“ Our women are good workers, better than the 
men. They will find places. As for the children, 
as long as they are not in actual want, we can leave 
them alone, I think. It is summer time, so that they 
won’t suffer, I think. Then the crops have been 


176 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

good, so if they beg they will get food enough to 
keep alive, I think.” 

“ But they’ll be miserable! ” put in Gavin. 

“ Ah, my boy,” answered his father, with a sigh, 
“ it’s going a bit too far to expect the Red Cross to 
make folks happy. After all, if Mr. Saripoulos will 
excuse my saying so, all this distress and suffering 
arises from the war, which was deliberately started 
by Greece. All the Powers told her to keep out, and 
she was distinctly the aggressor. It is our business 
to help her, as much as we possibly can, for the Red 
Cross pays no heed to the fact whether the suffer¬ 
ing people are to blame or not; we don’t go into 
politics, we’re concerned only with the fact that suf¬ 
fering exists. But it isn’t our business to keep Greece 
from taking her medicine, and, certainly, she’ll have 
to shoulder her own burdens the minute she’s able 
to. 

“ You can see for yourself, Gavin, that if the 
American Red Cross devotes too much time and 
money to what might be called chronic conditions, 
we’d have no chance to deal with acute situations, 
and experience has shown that an average of three 
great disasters and fifty small ones is to be expected 
every year. We can’t be the Fairy Godmother to 
all the world! ” 


A LAND OF REFUGEES 177 


The next few weeks were busy ones for Gavin and 
his father. The break-up of the Saloniki camp 
brought about many heart-stirring scenes, and it 
was difficult for the American not to interfere. But, 
though a rich man, he soon saw the enormous ex¬ 
pense of trying to help special cases, and he realized 
the necessity of dealing with emergency affairs by 
group methods only. Gavin was unable to see this, 
and over and over again he came to camp head¬ 
quarters with some particularly pathetic case, or 
some situation among the children which he thought 
was a matter for a Red Cross Junior to help. 

One day, not very long after their arrival, while 
walking through the half-deserted camp, Gavin saw 
two boys fighting. He came up quickly, to try to 
find out what was the trouble, and, when only a few 
yards away, saw the flash of a knife. Instantly he 
dashed in, and caught the offender a full punch right 
on the point of the jaw. The would-be stabber fell, 
and the knife went spinning out of his hands. 

Instantly the other boy drew his knife, ready to 
plunge at his fallen foe. This was as foul work as 
that of the first fighter, and Gavin closed with him, 
trying to wrench the knife out of his hand. There 
was a short but sharp tussle before he got it free. 

By this time, both boys were ready to turn on 


178 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

him, but they hesitated, knowing that, as a rule, 
Americans in Greece carried revolvers. Gavin did 
not, for his father had absolutely forbidden it. 

This hesitation saved him. The two boys noticed 
the little Junior Red Cross button on his coat, and 
drew back. Neither of them understood a word of 
English, nor did Gavin know any Greek. Yet when 
he beckoned to the two boys to follow him, they 
did so. 

Mr. Saripoulos, to whom Gavin took the culprits, 
showed no surprise. The American lad had a strong 
impression that it would not have made any real 
difference to the Greek if the two boys had killed 
each other. Yet he questioned them closely. 

“ It is nothing,” he concluded airily, turning to 
Gavin. “ This boy’s father is a prisoner among the 
Turks, and the other lad made the accusation that 
he had deserted. So a knife was drawn. It was 
quite natural, I think. But I will put them both in 
prison, if you like.” 

It was Gavin’s turn to hesitate. He had heard a 
good deal about Greek prisons, and that the two lads 
should be condemned just to satisfy him was not a 
pleasant thought. 

“Are they staying in camp much longer, Mr. 
Saripoulos? ” he asked. 


A LAND OF REFUGEES 


179 


The Greek relief-worker turned over the pages of 
the comprehensive ledger which the American Red 
Cross had left, and which contained detailed infor¬ 
mation of every refugee in the camp, and looked up 
the boys’ names. 

“ No,” he said. “ Both are to go next week. A 
sponge-fisher at Piraeus needs two cleaners, and I’m 
sending them there.” 

“ To kill each other, all over again? ” 

The Greek shrugged his shoulders. 

“ I am not their father! ” 

Gavin thought hard for a minute or two. 

“ No,” he said, “ I don’t want them sent to prison. 
But that captain of the Greek steamer we came here 
on seemed a good sort. He’d take one of them for 
a deck-hand, I’m sure, if we paid wages for a couple 
of months, until the new hand was worth his salt.” 

“ Undoubtedly,” said the relief-worker, dryly, 
“ since that would mean a sailor for two months for 
nothing. But who is to pay that money? You? ” 
“ I’m willing enough,” said Gavin. “ But it’s only 
sixteen dollars. I can take that out of the Junior 
Red Cross Service Fund of my school. I’m dead 
sure that the fellows there will be glad to have had 
a hand—no matter how small—in helping out the 
Greek refugees.” 


CHAPTER VIII 

f 

EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE 

Martin had not found much work to do in Greece. 
Relief had been thoroughly organized after the eight 
months’ direction of the American Red Cross, and 
the Greek relief directors, fully trained to take over 
the duties, had no need of him. In any case, Martin 
considered himself of greater value in emergency 
operations. Merely to be driving Mr. Oglethorpe’s 
car from place to place in a land where the Red 
Cross flag was flying everywhere, was a sore trial for 
him. 

Some three weeks had passed thus when news 
came over the press cables to the Athens newspa¬ 
pers, announcing a succession of slight earthquake 
shocks in Messina, and stating that the great Sicilian 
volcano, Etna, was awakening into activity . 1 

The news excited Gavin to an extreme degree. 
Messina had become a familiar name to him, ever 

1 The great eruption of Etna (at which the author was 
present in person, and lived near the lava-fields for months) 
took place in June 1923, not the month following, as 
stated here. This slight change of date has been made to 
fit the requirements of the story.—F. R-W. 

180 




Courtesy of American lied Cross. 

Messina, Just After the Terrible Earthquake. 

This Sicilian city, five times wrecked by earthquakes, is slowly 
being rebuilt along lines suggested by the American Red 
Cross, and with the aid of funds sent from the 
United States. 


Courtesy of American lied Cross. 

San Francisco, After Earthquake and Fire. 

View of Telegraph Hill, where many people were caught and 
burned to death, and where the property loss reached 
the staggering total of $500,000,000. 







Courtesy of American Red Cross. 

“Straighten that out for me with the Government, 

Please!” 

All claims of disabled ex-service men are carefully investigated 
and adjusted through the American Red Cross. 


Courtesy of American Red Cross. 

“Tell them at home I’ll be out of here pretty soon!” 

Red Cross workers, in Government hospitals, keep ex-service 
men in touch with their families. 








EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE 181 

since Stewart’s account of the help which had been 
given to that earthquake-stricken city and region by 
the Knights Hospitallers in the eighteenth century. 
The very idea of Etna in action was thrilling. 

“ Oh, Father,” he clamored, as he burst into one 
of the private offices in the barrack-like Relief Build¬ 
ing, “ there’s going to be a volcanic eruption, and 
I’ve never seen one! It’s going to be a big one, like 
that Mont Pele one that you so nearly got caught 
by, in Martinique, and that you’ve so often told me 
about! ” 

“ And where is all this to happen? ” 

“ Etna’s waking up! Martin says so! ” 

“ Is Martin a professional seismologist, then, as 
well as a Red Cross man? ” 

“ No, but a famous Greek professor chap is going 
to Sicily on the very next boat, Saripoulos says, so 
it must be true! ” 

“ Ah? ” 

“ And a lot of little earthquake shocks have been 
registered at Messina! That’s why the geologist is 
going there in a hurry. Greece is on the same earth¬ 
quake line as Sicily! ” 

The banker put his elbow on the table and leaned 
forward, keen interest in his glance. 

“ That's more serious! One can expect anything 


182 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

in Messina; that city seems foredoomed to ruin, ever 
since those long-ago days when it was overthrown 
and when a pirate fleet was overwhelmed in its har¬ 
bor, during a sea-battle with the Roman galleys. 
And you remember the great earthquake of 1783 
that Mr. Stewart told us about? ” 

“ I know! That’s one reason I want to go there! ” 
exploded Gavin. 

“ I had intended to visit Messina on my way 
back,” his father rejoined, “ largely because a good 
deal of the rebuilding which is going on there— 
though with exasperating slowness—is being done 
along the lines suggested by the American Red Cross, 
after that last terrible destruction of the city in 
1908, a calamity compared to which the San Fran¬ 
cisco earthquake of 1906 was as nothing. The 
American Red Cross showed up well there, accord¬ 
ing to all the accounts I’ve read, and I’d like to be on 
the ground to see it for myself.” 

“ It was a really bad shock, wasn’t it? I have 
heard it was.” 

“ The whole city was destroyed, as was Reggio, 
in Calabria, across the straits. Over 75,000 lives 
were lost. All along the Calabrian and Sicilian 
coasts a terrible ‘ tidal wave ’ rolled in—it was 
thirty-six feet high at San Alessio! Yes, son, the 




EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE 183 

Messina earthquake was a world-disaster, certainly 
the biggest of modern times. 1 

“ Every civilized country in the world rushed to 
the assistance of Messina. The Italian Red Cross, 
a marvellously well-organized body, had sixteen 
temporary hospitals established in the earthquake 
region within eighteen hours—a record! The King 
was on the ground very shortly after. But the hos¬ 
pitals didn’t have the money to keep them going, 
since every lire of the Italian funds was being spent 
in the terrible urgency of instant relief. The Ameri¬ 
can Red Cross came to the front at once and cabled 
a donation of $300,000 to maintain these hospitals 
and to establish others, until Italy should be ready 
to take them over. 

“ The United States Ambassador formed a vol¬ 
unteer Red Cross Committee from the American 
colony at Rome, and thousands of dollars were put 
into his hands. He set out, ten days later, with 
three doctors, eighteen nurses, and a ship-load of 
supplies, designed principally for aid to the little 
mountain villages lying along the line of earthquake 
shock, and which had not yet been reached by the 
agencies working in the big cities. 

1 This is written as having been said before the Tokyo 
Earthquake of September 1923, when 250,000 lives were 
lost, unquestionably the greatest calamity of its kind ever 
recorded in human history. 


184 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ As a matter of fact, the relief agencies couldn’t 
possibly get to these villages. They were already 
swamped, and doubly swamped, with the wounded 
and mutilated, with the homeless and starving. Just 
think of it, Gavin, the towns near by had suddenly 
to make accommodations and to find food for 
500,000 people, of whom at least 100,000 were seri¬ 
ously hurt. And the earthquake shock itself didn’t 
last forty seconds! A thing like that fairly stuns 
the mind; I’ll admit that I can’t quite grasp it my¬ 
self! 

“ One American woman, Katharine B. Davis, a 
very well-known social worker, chanced to be staying 
in Syracuse when a Russian warship and an English 
warship steamed into its tiny harbor, bringing 600 
wounded with them. There were no hospital ac¬ 
commodations available, and there was only one 
trained nurse in the entire city. Naval surgeons 
from both warships undertook the immediate sur¬ 
gical work and treatment, and this American woman 
hastily organized a volunteer corps of untrained 
nurses. That saved the situation for the time being, 
until the flood of Red Cross nurses which was 
streaming down by every train and ship from every 
corner of Europe, arrived to undertake a task greater 
and more sudden than that from any battle-field. 


EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE 185 

“ When the Red Cross medical units arrived, Miss 
Davis took charge of relief work, under cabled in¬ 
structions from the American Red Cross. She com¬ 
mandeered every sewing-machine to be found for 
miles around, and set the women at making gar¬ 
ments. She stirred up the municipal authorities of 
Syracuse to set relief schemes in operation—such as 
road-making and harbor improvements—and, for 
quite a long time, the American Red Cross paid the 
wages which kept these survivors and their families 
alive. 

“ It’s worth remembering, too, that the one figure 
which stands out the highest in the story of the 
Messina earthquake was an American, Bayard Cut¬ 
ting, Jr. His deeds, done despite his delicate health, 
rank him at the supreme level of the finest of the 
Knights Hospitallers of old time. He died soon 
after his return to America, worn out by his labors 
for the earthquake victims. Messina is a sinister 
name in the records of disaster, but Red Cross work, 
on that occasion, linked all the world in helpfulness. 

“And Etna has a bad reputation, too! If she 
really should be on the rampage again! ” The 
banker hesitated. “ I suppose you want to go? ” 

“ Well, Father, that steamer we came here on, 
and that you liked the captain of so much, is going 


186 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

back to Naples to-morrow. And she’s got to stop at 
Messina to drop the Professor! ” 

The boy’s father looked regretfully at a pile of 
papers in front of him, for he had offered to act as 
financial adviser to the Greek committee for a month 
or so after the Red Cross had left, just to make sure 
that the American system was thoroughly under¬ 
stood and was being properly followed. 

“ I would surely like to go with you, son! ” 

“ Can’t you come? ” 

“ Not right away. But if anything really serious 
develops, let me know at once, and I’ll join you as 
quickly as I can get there. You’ll be safe enough 
under Martin’s charge, so far as that’s concerned, 
but send me a cable at least twice a week, so that 
I’ll know you’re all right. Tell Martin to come and 
see me, to get instructions.” 

“ And then I could take that Nicolas chap down 
with me to the ship, couldn’t I? ” 

“ Take care he doesn’t draw his knife on you, 
then! ” 

Gavin fidgeted, for his father had not as yet given 
a definite permission, albeit an implied one. 

“ I can go, then? ” 

“Well—yes! There, get along with you,” the 
banker said at last, “ and good luck! Don’t get too 


EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE 187 

wild now, and go trying to look dow r n the mouth of 
the crater or anything of that sort! ” 

“ I won’t, Father! ” answered Gavin, with a hearty 
handshake. “ Thanks ever so much! ” 

And he rushed out to tell Martin that he had 
received permission to go. 

The chauffeur had not been in any doubt as to 
Mr. Oglethorpe’s answer, and had already com¬ 
menced to pack a couple of big suit-cases. There 
was no time to waste, for the steamer was to start 
at daybreak and it was necessary to get down to the 
port and to be on board the evening before. 

The Greek seismologist, who spoke English well, 
for he had been one of the members of the Inter¬ 
national Committee to study the Great Indian 
Earthquake of 1897 and the San Francisco Earth¬ 
quake of 1906, took an immediate interest in Gavin. 
He explained to him, with a wealth of detail, all the 
various causes and conditions of earthquake shocks. 
If truth be told, the boy understood but little of the 
explanation, for the geologist’s language was highly 
technical, and Gavin was not far enough advanced 
in science to be able to follow him. Besides which, 
earthquakes did not seem as interesting as volcanic 
eruptions, and, every chance he could, the boy 
turned the conversation to the latter subject. 


188 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ You do not have the eruptions of the volcanoes 
in the United States/' remarked the Professor, “ for, 
while there are old volcanoes there, they are all dead. 
That is the good thing. You have a proverb: * The 
good Indian is the dead Indian '; with that, I do 
not agree. But: ‘ The good volcano is the dead 
volcano'; that, yes! " 

“ Sometimes they come alive again, though," com¬ 
mented Gavin. “ Mont Pele, in Martinique, was 
supposed to be dead, so Father says." 

“ Ah, but it had been alive again for more than 
the month before the disaster. It gave plenty of the 
warning. That was one time," he added, “ that the 
Red Cross could not give the help. There was no 
one left alive to help. Over 40,000 lives were blown 
out—pouf! Like I blow out the candle! " 

“ Just as it was in Pompeii, I suppose? " put in 
Gavin, who had visited Pompeii and Herculaneum 
during the one afternoon that he and his father had 
stayed in Naples; he had also taken the little moun¬ 
tain ratchet-railway up to the crater of Vesuvius. 

“ No, no; not at all like the Pompeii. The people 
of the Pompeii were not all killed, or, at least, not 
quickly. Most of them got away, for not many of 
the bones were found. But the people of the St. 
Pierre, Martinique, were all slain in a few seconds 


EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE 189 

by a cloud of brilliant flame of incandescent poison 
gas which swept over the whole city when the top 
of the Mont Pele blew off. 

“ It was not in America, precisely, but in the 
American possessions that the fate of the Pompeii 
was repeated, and not many years ago. One of my 
colleagues in the Japan told me about it. That hap¬ 
pened in the Philippines.’’ 

“ I never heard of it! ” 

“ You mean the Lake Taal eruption, Professor? ” 
put in Martin, who had been listening. “ You ought 
to learn about that one, Gavin; it was a corking 
example of how the American Red Cross has got a 
hold in our insular possessions.” 

“ But how can a lake have an eruption? ” queried 
Gavin, not a little puzzled. 

“ It was not the lake,” the geologist took up the 
tale. “ See, I will tell you. In the middle of the 
Lake Taal, which is in the island of the Luzon, there 
is the little volcano—just the very little one—not 
more than three hundred feet high. It was all cov¬ 
ered with the dense forest, and the country on the 
shores of the lake was luxuriant with the tropical 
vegetation and dotted with the little Filipino vil¬ 
lages. There was nothing at all there to make any 
one think it was the volcano. It had not spoken at 



190 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

all for nearly two hundred years, and the Filipinos 
had forgotten that it could be angry. 

“ Then—it was on January 30, 1911—before day¬ 
break, when all the little natives were asleep, the 
volcano opened its long-silent mouth, uttered the 
single roar, yawned yet wider and belched out mil¬ 
lions of tons of the white-hot ashes. There must 
have been the fumes, too, but not very violent ones. 

“ Some of the people were strong enough and 
quick enough to run away through the falling ash 
and a few of them did escape, though with their 
feet burned to the bone in running; those who were 
near the volcano fell before they reached the safety, 
perhaps because of the fumes, perhaps because of 
the muchness of the heat. Some were caught in the 
drifts of the white-hot ash, drifting like grey snow 
on fire, and which buried their grass huts, just like 
the Pompeii was buried. Then, as so often happens 
in these volcanic or seismic cases, the ‘ 'quake-wave 9 
—often miscalled the ‘ tidal wave ’—came up and 
swept away the many little fishing villages along the 
shore. About 1,300 people were killed in that half- 
hour." 

“ But the best of that story is to come," put in 
Martin. “ As soon as the news reached Washington, 
Red Cross headquarters cabled a thousand dollars, 


EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE 191 

and asked the Governor-General of the Philippines 
how much more he needed. But the Manila Red 
Cross Chapter was full of local pride. It cabled back 
that it could handle the relief work itself, and the 
fifteen thousand dollars needed for immediate need 
was raised right there in the island. There wasn’t 
any Junior Red Cross in those days, it hadn’t been 
organized yet. But the little Filipino school-chil¬ 
dren, in almost every American-run school, brought 
some little gift of food to be sent to Lake Taal. 

“ It was a hard place to bring help to. There 
wasn’t a single road around the lake. The sea¬ 
shore, a little distance away, was all choked with 
volcanic pumice and ash. Boats had to be tugged 
from the sea through this mess of pasty, churning 
surf and then dragged with ropes up the shallow and 
nearly boiling river so that the relief parties could 
get to the sufferers. 

“ Difficult as it was, by nightfall the Red Cross 
had got a small field hospital up, to help the in¬ 
jured, most of whom had been atrociously burned 
by lying on the white-hot ash. Burns are excru¬ 
ciatingly painful and very slow to heal. A chap I 
had in my Reel Cross Ambulance Motor Section, 
during the War, and who’d been at Lake Taal, said 
the suffering was worse than anything he’d seen at 


192 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

the front. But every man who was able to work 
was found a job, and every widow and orphan re¬ 
ceived support as long as she needed it. In two 
years, the place was all green once more, and the 
volcanic ash was yielding rich crops.” 

“ But did the people go back there again? ” 
queried Gavin, in astonishment. 

“ Oh, yes; the land was worth more than before.” 

The geologist nodded. 

“ That often happens. Look how the rock-hard 
black lava of the Etna becomes fertile, after the cen¬ 
tury or two of disintegration. The vineyards of 
Etna are famous, and they are all on the black lava.” 

“ Do you suppose there really will be an eruption 
there, Professor? ” 

“ Oh, that is certain! But I do not say when. 
Etna is the very active chimney; it smokes all the 
time, you know. And it growls often. There is an 
eruption on the average of every eleven years.” 

“ Bad ones? ” 

“ Well, there were seven fairly big ones during the 
last century, and, in this century, there has been 
just one, in 1910. So it is perhaps the time. Gen¬ 
erally the eruptions of the Etna are not very dan¬ 
gerous, because the mountain is so big—it is enor¬ 
mous! You see, if the lava flows out from the cen- 


EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE 193 

tral crater, it is bound to cool and solidify before it 
can push its way down to the cultivated land on 
the lower slopes of the mountain, where the people 
live. Still, the Catania has been destroyed three 
times; once, very dramatically, when a shower of 
big red-hot stones bombarded the Cathedral during 
the crowded service on the Sunday morning. Ca¬ 
tania was levelled by the earthquake once, too.” 

“ Sicily doesn’t seem a very safe place to live,” 
commented Gavin. 

“ Well, your American Red Cross will always come 
to help, if anything happens,” said the geologist, 
smiling, as the bell rang for dinner. 

Messina was a disappointing and melancholy 
sight. Although fifteen years had passed since the 
great earthquake, the city was all littered with ruins. 
A couple of new streets had been built, running up 
from the port, but huts and shiftless barracks oc¬ 
cupied even the main streets. Vast stretches, 
formerly occupied by houses—especially in the 
neighborhood of the Cathedral—were still as the 
earthquake had left them. It seemed as though the 
disaster had been so terrible that the population had 
been stunned by the shock. 

“ I can understand it,” explained Martin, when 
Gavin expressed surprise that the rebuilding had 


194 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

been so slow. “ The Italian Government couldn’t 
maintain Messina on charity forever, and the time 
had to come when help was withdrawn. It was 
probably done too suddenly, or else the people of 
Messina had got so used to being helped that they 
hadn’t the ambition to put themselves on their feet 
again. 

“ You know, it’s easy enough to organize a bread¬ 
line, as long as you have the money; any one can 
do that. But it takes a pretty thorough training in 
relief work and a solid understanding of the com¬ 
plicated social problems of to-day to demobilize that 
bread-line, so to speak, without undoing all the good 
you’ve done before, or injuring the people you’re 
trying to help. 

“ It’s the getting out, at the close of a period of 
relief work, that calls for the highest organizing 
power, and the American Red Cross is careful to 
use its best men for the purpose. I miss my guess 
if this dragging along in Messina isn’t just because 
the Italian Government did such wonderful work 
when it came to helping the distressed, but didn’t 
understand just how to build up courage in the 
faint-hearted and energy in the lazy.” 

“ That is probably the most true,” agreed the 
geologist. “ But it must remembered be that it is 


EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE 195 

more difficult for us in the Greece, or in the Italy, 
than it is for you. The Mediterranean peoples are 
well content to sit in the sun if there is the bread, 
the oil, the wine to be had, free. That is why we 
have so many beggars. The poor expect always to 
be poor, they do not dream to be rich. When the 
disaster comes, they feel it is natural to be fed. 

“ In the northern nations, there is more the am¬ 
bition, there is more the desire for a varied life, and 
there is more the anxiety to get on in the world. 
The very climate of the north makes the want for 
more food, and for the better-built house, for fires, 
for warm clothing. All that must be bought, while 
our sunshine is free. Then, too, the bracing winter 
puts the energy in the body. 

“ That is why some of the Oriental peoples are 
so hard to help. They cannot easily meet what is 
different. The people of the India and of the China 
are hard workers, very hard workers, when they 
think there is the hope; but they are very bad work¬ 
ers when something goes wrong. If they are too 
hungry, it is the Fate! 

“ I have done Earthquake Surveys in the China, 
and have seen one of the great famines in the valley 
of the Hwang-Ho or Yellow River, ‘ The River of 
Sorrows/ as the Chinese call it. This river, to- 


196 .WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

gether with the Hwai-Ho and the Hungtso Lake, 
has been the cause of unbelievable disaster for thou¬ 
sands of years. It is too shallow for the navigation 
in the winter, too rapid in the summer, and, though 
efforts have been made to hold it in embankments— 
at places twenty-five feet high above the surround¬ 
ing plain—it cannot be controlled and breaks all 
boundaries, covering the cultivated lands with sand 
and muds for the thousands of square miles.” 

“ Thousands of square miles! ” exclaimed Gavin. 
“ Isn’t that coming it a bit strong, Professor? ” 

“ In 1887,” the geologist replied, “ the flood on the 
Hwang-Ho absolutely destroyed the cultivated land 
for over the 50,000 square miles, that is to say, a 
region four times as large as the whole country of 
Belgium. Over 4,000,000 people were made home¬ 
less, and over 1,000,000 lost their lives from famine. 
These destructive floods cause the very great misery, 
and they repeat themselves every few years. Even 
the money given by the American Red Cross—and 
large sums have been subscribed—is but the little 
drop in the big sea. And the fatalistic spirit of the 
Chinese is hurtful. 

“ ‘ If there is no food/ say they, ‘ we die/ but 
they do not struggle to help themselves. 

“ It is true that for the men and women of the 


EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE 197 

China the life is of the most difficult. All peoples 
of the world will admit that the Chinese are the 
patient, hard-working race, and yet, to them, every 
country shuts the door. During those great Chinese 
famines, suppose the United States let the few mil¬ 
lion in, to work the thousands of square miles of 
uncultivated land in America, instead of sending 
some hundreds of thousands of dollars at every news 
of the disaster, it seems to me that she would be 
the gainer, not the loser, and the Chinese would be 
helped, too.” 

“That’s going a bit far!” exclaimed Martin. 
“ Right or wrong, the Chinese are excluded by 
United States laws, and that’s as far as we have any 
right to go. Anyway, the Red Cross takes a lot of 
pains not to infringe, in the lightest fashion, on any 
government policy. Immigration is a very ticklish 
subject. However much we might like to admit 
refugees to the States, in order to help them, noth¬ 
ing is ever done contrary to Government regulation 
or public feeling. It’s not our business to handle 
anything except the prevention of suffering and the 
prompt alleviation of suffering. 

“But you’re ’way out, Professor, in your idea 
that the Red Cross isn’t doing anything to help 
China permanently. If it hadn’t been for the World 


198 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

War, to begin with, and the political mix-up in 
China after—due to the formation of a Chinese Re¬ 
public and the civil wars it brought on—the Yellow 
River would already have been put in harness 
and the biggest cause of Chinese famines would be 
over. 

“ By and large, the American Red Cross has given 
nearly a million dollars for famine relief work in 
China. The American Missionary Boards have 
given almost as much. Europe has helped gener¬ 
ously. All that, as you said, Professor, is but a drop 
in the sea. You know why better than I do. Fam¬ 
ines will always continue in China until the vast 
granary country of the Yellow River basin is made 
permanently safe from floods. I think you’ll admit 
that I’m right in saying that the Yellow River plains 
could feed the whole of China, and still leave mil¬ 
lions of bushels of grain for export.” 

“ It is the truth,” admitted the Professor. 

“ I happened to get hold of a special report on 
this once in a Red Cross camp,” Martin explained, 
“ and that’s how I know. That report said that, 
before the time of Christ, the Chinese emperors had 
chained the river, so that the floods were not so bad. 
They can grow two crops a year on those plains. 
In the old Yu times, the average was eight good 



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EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE 199 

crops in five years. A hundred years ago, there were 
six to seven crops in five years. Then the Powers 
began to interfere with China—Pm not going to 
talk politics!—and this broke up the old system of 
mandarin rule; the crops in the Yellow River basin 
dropped to four or five in five years. 

“ Then China became a Republic. All authority 
was swept away. Half a dozen different kinds of 
civil war broke out—and are still going on. All 
conservation work was abandoned, for there was no 
central directing power left anywhere. Now, the 
flood plains hardly produce the equivalent of a single 
full crop in five years. Get it? The modem spirit in 
China has reduced by four-fifths her food supply in 
her richest district, at the same time that her popu¬ 
lation is steadily increasing. What’s the answer? 

“ Fourteen years ago the American Red Cross gave 
the answer. It’s our business not only to help in 
times of famine, but to prevent famine, if we can; 
just as we try to prevent the spread of a plague, as 
well as to cure the sufferers. So, modern peoples, 
instead of giving talky-talk to China, or doing only 
such work on concessions as will bring them in a fat 
profit, ought to give China the benefit of real moder¬ 
nity. The Red Cross isn’t out for profit, and that’s 
why we stepped in. Have you ever heard the story 


200 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

of the American Red Cross and the Yellow River, 
Professor? ” 

“ No! It I have not heard.” 

“ Yet it’s simple enough. In 1911, the American 
Red Cross, with the approval of the Department of 
State, offered to the Chinese Government the serv¬ 
ices of an expert in river conservancy, to make a 
thorough engineering survey of the whole question 
of the Yellow River, the Hwai-Ho and the Hung- • 
tso Lake, the Red Cross paying all expenses. After 
a year spent on the survey, a report was submitted, 
showing that the work was feasible and would pay 
for itself. 

“ The Chinese Government then asked the Red 
Cross to take charge of the whole affair, raising a 
loan to finance the project, choosing the engineers, 
and all the rest of it. It was a big job, almost as 
big a job as the Panama Canal, and equally useful. 
But since the banks who lent the money would want 
interest, and this interest must come later from the 
fruits of the enterprise, that made it a business mat¬ 
ter, and not one of philanthropy, so that the Ameri¬ 
can Red Cross couldn’t very well undertake the re¬ 
sponsibility. 

“ Just the same, we offered to use our influence. 
The banks agreed to make a loan to any strong and 


EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE 201 

responsible corporation, suitably guaranteed. Cer¬ 
tain prominent men were approached, and they 
agreed to assume the responsibility, but demanded 
that a committee composed of the three biggest en¬ 
gineers in the United States should be sent out, not 
only to make a survey, but to map out the whole 
project, both from the engineering and the financial 
point of view. The head of this commission was 
Colonel Sibert, who had built the dam and the 
Gatun locks at Panama. The expenses for this very 
complete and elaborate survey were borne equally 
by the American Red Cross and the Chinese Gov¬ 
ernment.” 

“ And did the engineers say ‘ Yes’? ” queried the 
geologist, greatly interested. 

“ They surely did. They brought back the com¬ 
plete engineering plans, worked out to the last de¬ 
tail, showing that six years’ work, at a cost of 
$30,000,000—about what America wastes on chew¬ 
ing gum every year—would ensure the restoration to 
production of land enough to feed forty million peo¬ 
ple annually, and would pay for itself in less than 
ten years. Most important of all, it would put an 
end, forever, to famines in China. 

“ As the American Ambassador at Pekin reported: 
‘Once again a condition of distress exists in this 



202 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

region . . . and such heartrending calamities 

will continue to dominate this most fertile region of 
China until radical relief is afforded, such as only 
the Hwai River Improvement can give. . . . 

No undertaking at present proposed in China equals 
it in importance and significance. 

“ ‘ It is not only that millions of acres of the most 
fertile agricultural land of China will be reclaimed 
to usefulness, affording assured means of livelihood 
to twenty million human beings, but the character 
of the work itself is of such a nature that its execu¬ 
tion would have a profound influence on the future 
of China. The work would be a model for scientific 
method and organization as applied through Chinese 
life. 

“* More especially, however, it would be the be¬ 
ginning of reclaiming the waste lands of China and 
utilizing the forces of nature, as represented in the 
rain-swollen streams, with the result that, according 
to the computations of competent experts, the agri¬ 
cultural productivity of China could be increased 
by nearly one hundred per cent. 

“ ‘ This is the starting point of all reform, leading 
to the betterment of conditions of life in this coun¬ 
try. That these opportunities exist is recognized by 
the leading representatives of all nations; the Amer- 


EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE 203 

ican project has therefore been given generous sup¬ 
port in the press throughout the world, such as has 
never fallen to any other foreign enterprise in China. 

“ ‘ In this enterprise lies the finest opportunity 
which America has ever had of bringing a great 
liberating influence to bear in China—liberating 
millions of people and eventually the entire popula¬ 
tion from the dominance of unfavorable natural con¬ 
ditions. All Americans in China realize the im¬ 
portance of this work. Having put our hands to 
the improvement of famine conditions in Central 
China, it has become a matter of justifiable national 
pride that this great work should be carried to the 
successful issue which is now in sight/ ” 

“ But will it ever be done? ” queried the geologist. 
“ Especially with all the unhappy revolutionary 
propaganda in China? ” 

“ It will be done,” declared Martin, confidently. 
“ Famine prevention work pays no heed to politics, 
if only some kind of stable government exists under 
which operations can continue. We are out to save 
lives, no matter who the people be or what they 
think. Humanity is humanity, and suffering is the 
only claim we recognize. Be sure! The ( River of 
Sorrows * will turn into a river of joy when it is 
gently guided by the American Red Cross! ” 


CHAPTER IX 


THE VOLCANO SPEAKS 

Haly-way up the long winding road to Taormina, 
leading steeply upward from the seashore station 
of Giardini, just at a turn overlooking the terraced 
garden of the Duke, Gavin suddenly pulled Martin 
by the arm, and pointed: 

“ Look! ” he cried. 

Upon the farther side of the valley of the Alcan¬ 
tara, which circles the great volcano to the north, 
rose to the sky the majestic cone of Etna, a sombre 
purplish blue against the last dying hues of a 
clouded sunset. And, as the boy pointed, a column 
of flame rose from the crater of the mountain, flick¬ 
ered, held itself aloft a quarter of a minute, and then 
sank again. Upon its disappearance, a faint red 
glow still hovered over the crater. 

Five minutes they waited, to see if there would 
be any further sign from the great mountain, where, 
according to tradition, Vulcan, the God of Fire and 
Smiths, lies imprisoned. Ten minutes they waited, 
and then came the column of flame again. 

“ It doesn’t look so big, after all! ” said Gavin, 

204 


THE VOLCANO SPEAKS 205 

disappointed, for, somehow, he had expected a more 
sensational display. 

The driver of the carriage, who, like most of the 
Taormina coachmen, had picked up a few words of 
English—Taormina is exclusively a tourist resort— 
intervened at once. 

“ Is true! It does not look big, not so big as it 
is. But that flame, my young Signore, is more than 
forty kilometres away. I am not of the clever ones, 
but it thinks to me that a flame nearly as long as 
my finger, seen from forty kilometres away, and 
which comes from a hole more than two kilometres 
around, is not small like a match! ” 

Martin nodded. 

“ He’s right, Gavin. That flame must be nearly 
a mile high and a quarter of a mile through. That’s 
stupendous, when you come to think of it. Even 
the eruption of Vesuvius in 1906—which was the 
first volcanic disaster in the relief of which the 
American Red Cross took a part—never, at its worst, 
gave such a flame as that! ” 

“ Couldn’t we climb the volcano and have a nearer 
look at it? ” 

“ I suppose you want to go and have a peep down 
in the crater, eh?” said Martin. “Just the very 
thing your father warned you about.” 


206 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“Well, we ought to be able to get closer than 
thirty miles, anyway! ” 

The boy turned as though to ask the driver. 

“Is true! Closer, yes. How close, I not know. 
Me, I am not a man of Mongibello (Etna). I was 

born at Mola-” he pointed to a strange castle-like 

city perched insecurely upon one of the strangely- 
shaped and sharply-cut mountains behind Taormina, 
just visible against the darkening sky. “ But I know 
a muleteer here, Salvatore Panebianco, born in Sant 
Alfio, all his brothers live there, high on slope of 
Mongibello. He tell whether possible climb, how 
far. I find him and send him your hotel.” 

The coachman was as good as his word. Next day, 
Salvatore came. He did not know a word of French 
or English, nor did Martin understand a word of 
Italian. Through the medium of the hotel clerk 
as interpreter, Salvatore refused flatly to guide 
Gavin and Martin up the mountain. Courteously, 
but firmly, he intimated that it was no climb for 
the untrained, even under the best of circumstances, 
and that, with the mountain angry, it was dangerous. 

Then the boy had a happy thought. 

“ If the Professor of Geology should come with 
them? ” 

The hotel clerk translated, and the Man of Etna 



THE VOLCANO SPEAKS 207 


swept his hands outward in a graceful gesture, for 
Sicily is not yet degraded by modernity, and scholar¬ 
ship is still regarded as superior to money. 

“ A professor! A man of learning! Ah, Signore, 
that is very different! ” 

Moreover, as Gavin was able to explain that the 
Greek professor had once spent some weeks in the 
Observatory which stands upon the southern slopes 
of Etna, all the guide’s objections were removed. A 
telegram to Messina brought the Professor next day. 

“ I shall be the curious,” he said, “ to ascend the 
mountain from the side of Sant Alfio. I am in¬ 
clined to the think that it is the safest side, just 
now. I know the volcano the little bit. I have been 
to Milo. There was the great eruption of Etna in 
the sixteenth century, which sent the very long 
tongue of lava toward the place which is called the 
Valley of the Winds. You would not recognize it as 
the lava flow now, it is like the high ridge all covered 
with trees. 

“New lava from the central crater cannot pass 
that. If there should be the eruption in the neigh¬ 
borhood of the Valle del Bove, there is no danger, 
it will flow downward toward the sea. The craters 
which lie between the summit and Sant Alfio are 
very old. I do not know the Etna very well, but 


208 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

I have studied the volcanoes of the world much. 
Not too much! They still keep many secrets. To¬ 
night, I will borrow the telescope, and we will climb 
up to Mola, or even to Mont Venere, and look.” 

From Mola, that evening, the view across the val¬ 
ley to the volcano was very clear, and the three 
watched the flame, rising and falling every ten or 
twelve minutes. 

“ The mountain is active, very active,” the 
geologist concluded, “ the much more so than the 
two times I have seen him before.” 

“ Is it really going to have an eruption? ” queried 
Gavin. 

“ It is in interior eruption now. In the central 
crater only. If it stay there, it is not dangerous to 
the life. Let us then make the climb by Sant Alfio, 
quietly, as far as is the wise, and we will see. The 
official permission we will not need, they at the Ob¬ 
servatory know me well.” 

Next day, the four of them, Martin, Gavin, the 
Professor and Salvatore, took the train to Giarre, 
and thence, by a rumbling heavy postal autobus, 
climbed to Sant Alfio, a village built upon a very 
steep slope in the middle of great green vineyards, 
which stand out in amazing color contrast against 
the jet-black soil of disintegrated lava. There was 


THE VOLCANO SPEAKS 


209 


no hotel there, not even the smallest inn, but, with 
the extraordinary hospitality which is characteristic 
of the Men of Etna, the priest of the village church 
put his house at their disposal, while Salvatore pre¬ 
pared for the expedition planned for the following 
day. 

There a new obstacle intervened. Salvatore’s 
brothers were unanimous as to the danger of the 
ascent, and, with true Sicilian family clannishness, 
the muleteer revoked his agreement to act as guide, 
even with the presence of the Professor. Here was 
a deadlock. 

Then the priest noticed the American Red Cross 
button on the lapel of Martin’s coat, and the Junior 
Red Cross button on Gavin’s jacket. 

“ Are you, then, of the American Red Cross? ” he 
asked. 

“ Yes, Reverend Father,” answered both in chorus, 
and Gavin added: 

“ We’ve just come back from helping the refugees 
in Greece.” 

“ Ah! ” The priest drew a long breath. “ There 
is no man in Sicily who will refuse to do anything 
for one of the American Red Cross! Ecco, Salva¬ 
tore! These be of those who built the Villagio 
Regina Elena, the refugee city near Messina, and 


210 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

who gave many houses and an orphanage near 
Reggio.” 

“ Much too good for the Calabrians,” growled 
Salvatore, for the Sicilians have no love for the peo¬ 
ple of Calabria. 

“ Animal! ” thundered the priest. “ Are they not 
children of the good God also! See, the Red Cross 
of America shows more charity than you! I call 
you shame! ” 

Salvatore winced. 

“ But, Reverend Father-” 

“ Do I, with my grey hair and my old legs, have 
to climb the mountain as a guide, because you do 
not know what is due to noble guests? ” 

“Ah, that! No!” 

Salvatore was evidently shocked at the idea. 

“ Ecco, my son! It is time that you began to 
understand! Go, find the mules! And the best! ” 
This time there was no protesting reply. The 
priest had touched the peasant to the quick. Any¬ 
thing may happen on Etna, save an infraction of 
hospitality. For an honored guest, no risk is too 
great, no danger too extreme. 

At three o’clock, the mules were in front of the 
priest’s house, three sturdy beasts, mountain-trained. 
Beside them stood Salvatore’s elder brother, Con- 



THE VOLCANO SPEAKS 211 


cetto, and also a lithe lad, apparently some thirteen 
years of age. 

“ Ah! ” said the priest. “ And where is Salva¬ 
tore? ” 

“ He takes my work to-day, Reverend Father. 
He has told me all. As you may have heard, there 
is no path on Mongibello unknown to me.” 

“ There are tales of a certain Atanasio the Black! ” 
The priest referred to a famous brigand, a faint 
smile on his lips. 

“ He knew the mountain well,” agreed Concetto, 
who saw the uselessness of denying the suggestion 
that he had been one of the brigand’s band. “ All 
knowledge may be useful at times, Reverend Fa¬ 
ther.” 

“ I give you my blessing,” said the priest, “ the 
responsibility is yours. You, Giuseppe, I suppose,” 
he added, turning to the lad, “ will be interpreter? ” 

“ Yes, Reverend Father.” 

“ Behold how wise it is to learn! A safe return, 
my children! ” 

They started up through the village, turning to 
the right past the famous Tree of a Thousand Horse¬ 
men. The way was by so-called roads, for there 
were walls of black blocks on either side, enclosing 
vineyards, but, anywhere save on Etna, such a way 


212 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

would never be imagined as usable. The road was 
merely the bed of an old lava flow, slightly rounded 
by the torrential rains of winter, a winding track 
of water-worn blocks, ledges, ridges and slides of 
lava, left just as after the eruption, save only that 
where the ledges were too high or the confusion of 
fragments too jagged for any four-footed animal to 
pass—even an Etna mule—some smaller bits of lava 
had been piled in to make a rugged staircase. That 
the mules could get up at all was a matter of blank 
amazement to the boy, when he had time to think 
at all; this was not always; most of his energies were 
devoted to not sliding off over his mule’s tail, so 
precipitous was the ascent. 

At seven o’clock they reached Maggazini, the high¬ 
est of the large vineyards, situated exactly at the 
point where the cultivation of vines ceases and the 
plantation of hazelnut trees begins. There a halt 
was made for supper. Shortly before nine o’clock, 
Concetto bade the climbers settle down on the straw 
in a big loft and ordered them to sleep until mid¬ 
night. Giuseppe and he followed suit, though 
neither seemed tired, albeit that both had climbed 
the entire distance on foot instead of on mule-back. 

“ Why not go straight on, instead of sleeping? ” 
queried Gavin. 




THE VOLCANO SPEAKS 213 

Giuseppe translated and Concetto shook his head. 

“ From here to where all vegetation ends is five 
hours of climbing,” he said. “ That can be done in 
the dark. Afterwards, it grows worse. We must see 
where to put our feet. And we must climb fast, so 
that we return down by night.” 

“ Couldn’t we sleep up there and see the volcano 
by night? ” queried Gavin, eagerly. 

But the geologist interposed. 

“Very dangerous! In the Observatory, that I 
learned. It is dangerous, even when the mountain 
is quiet, for, if the wind rises it becomes at once the 
hurricane on the treeless upper slopes of Etna. 
Now, with the volcano puffing the pipe, the wind to 
blow the fumes near us would not be good, it might 
be the death. The volcanoes are the treacherous 
friends. Concetto has reason. Above all things, we 
must be down again by night.” 

At midnight—a pitch-black moonless night, the 
stars hidden by a film of high-floating volcanic ash 
—Gavin was wakened, and, still more than half 
asleep, was helped on his mule. 

Once more they started. 

After perhaps half an hour of quiet riding through 
the plantation of nut-trees, Concetto passed back 
the word: 


214 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ Careful! It grows a little rough here! ” 

Gavin was getting waked up now, and it was time. 
The mules commenced to go up a road which wound 
in and out of enormous chestnut trees at an angle 
like that of a steep staircase, but so irregular that 
the sure-footed animals were compelled to ascend 
in jumps and sudden heavings of their powerful 
haunches, almost like goats. 

Sitting on a blanket strapped to the mule, and 
without stirrups, Gavin found the grip of his knees 
all insufficient. To keep himself from slipping over 
the mule’s tail, he had to hang on to the surcingle 
with all his might. In the dark night, the black road 
was invisible. Even the silhouettes of the great 
chestnut trees were scarcely to be seen, and, several 
times, low-hanging branches nearly scraped the boy 
from his precarious seat. How the mules ever found 
places to put their feet seemed something very like 
a miracle. 

Five hours were spent in this rugged ascent. 
Then, in the distance, the climbers saw the gleam 
of a fire. 

“ The topmost shepherd’s hut on Etna,” Giuseppe 
explained. “ Concetto sent a message yesterday 
they should a fire have.” 

“ That’ll be great; wish we were there now! ” ap- 


THE VOLCANO SPEAKS 215 


proved Gavin, for he was chilled to the bone and his 
teeth were chattering, though he was wearing a 
heavy overcoat and woolen gloves—and the day be¬ 
fore, at sea-level, a Palm Beach suit had been bur¬ 
densome, for a July sun, in Sicily, can be painfully 
hot. Yet here, at dawn, at 7,000 feet above the level 
of the sea, upon black lava which had radiated away 
all the previous day’s heat within two hours after 
sundown, with the air beginning to be rarefied, the 
sneaking little down-current from the peak pierced 
to the bone. 

“ How long do we wait here? ” asked Gavin, shiv¬ 
ering. 

“ No long, Signore,” Giuseppe answered, translat¬ 
ing Concetto’s reply. He pointed to the northeast, 
where the false dawn was beginning. “ We will go 
on as soon as it is light. But you will take hot 
coffee first.” 

Gavin drank the coffee with great gusto, and then, 
when he had swallowed the last drop, a problem 
struck him suddenly. 

“ Look here, Professor,” he blurted out. “ This 
is a volcano, isn’t it? That means it’s just a peak 
made by layer on layer of lava and ash coming out 
of the craters, doesn’t it? ” 

“ Very largely,” the geologist replied. 


216 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ And lava’s pretty solid. I mean, it doesn’t let 
water through. And if it did, the water would all 
get turned into steam by the fire below, wouldn’t 
it?” 

“ What is it that is troubling you? ” 

“ I’m wondering where they got the water for this 
coffee on the top of a mountain all on fire? ” 

Giuseppe having translated, Concetto answered 
the boy’s question. 

" It is snow,” he said. 

“Snow!” ejaculated Gavin. This was even 
harder to believe. 

Concetto smiled. 

“ When it comes daylight, Signore, I will show 
you. Mongibello is very high (11,274 feet) and in 
the winter there is very much snow. One may give 
sheep to feed on the young thorn-bushes in the 
spring. So the shepherds must have water for the 
sheep. They get it from the snow.” 

“ I don’t see how! ” 

“ It is this the way, Gavin,” the geologist ex¬ 
plained. “ High mountains attract the rain-clouds, 
so that the Etna, in the winter, is generally in the 
clouds. In high altitude, these clouds condense as 
the snow, not as the rain. The tempests of the wind 
are terrible. The dry powdery snow is driven into 


THE VOLCANO SPEAKS 217 


the old craters and into rifts, where it is packed 
very hard, almost like the ice. 

“ In the early spring, the shepherds climb up 
among the snowfields and spend the month or more 
here, in the bitter cold, descending every evening to 
the shelter of the forest. They cut the thousands of 
blocks of this hard snow. These blocks they put in 
the ravine, or in the hole where the summer sun 
will not strike them, and they cover the blocks of 
snow with scrub and branches that they carry up 
from the forest. As the air is always cold, it does 
not melt. 

“ Then, in the time of summer, when the sheep 
are feeding, and the water is the necessary, they 
take one or two of these blocks of snow, and put 
them in the sun in the morning, on the slab of lava 
which slopes down into the lava trough. In the 
evening the snow is all melted and the sheep drink. 
It is all because the sun is hot and the air is cold.” 

Slowly the daylight came, and, with its light, 
Gavin found himself in a new world. Not a tree of 
any kind was to be seen, merely a spotting of some 
of the older lava slopes with grey-green shrubs a 
foot high. These aromatic bushes—famous as far 
back as the days of the Roman emperors for the 
flavor and tenderness they give to mutton—were 


218 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

triply-armed on the older parts of the plant with 
vicious thorns, but the season’s growth was green 
and tender. They, and they only, suggested some¬ 
thing real. 

All else was strange, forbidding, unearthly. Two 
cinder cones, four hundred feet high, rose from the 
edge of an old crater between the climbers’ resting 
place and the rising sun, black, gaunt, grim, with a 
hard outline that cut upon the sky-line like a knife. 
On every side were sharp cones, deep pits, rugged 
barriers, jagged walls, smooth slopes, all of black 
lava, always black, so that their black forms upon 
the black ground cut no shadow, black and unnat¬ 
ural save where a tinge of violet, a smudge of sul¬ 
phur-yellow, or a pallor of white decay made the 
great blackness all the more repelling. Above them 
loomed the great lonely peak of Etna, sullen and 
inhospitable, and, while the summit itself was hid¬ 
den, the puffs of vapor could be seen, and also the 
great trail of smoke and ashes trailing as a sombre 
plume to the distant horizon. 

“ Avanti! ” cried Concetto, and the march was re¬ 
sumed. 

Then came a grim and arduous climb. For ten 
minutes at a time, perhaps, the way would lie up 
and over a lava flow, in criss-cross ridges forced up 


THE VOLCANO SPEAKS 219 

by underneath pressure to such shapes as night¬ 
mares breed, bristling with spikes of lava-glass, with 
curving pike-heads as sharp as shark-hooks, and with 
the razor-like edges of semi-exploded gas-bubbles, 
sometimes solid but often hollow and treacherous. 

This would be followed by a cinder-slope, into 
which the feet would sink half-way to the knee, so 
that the leg would have to be lifted knee-high at 
each step, bringing quick fatigue and muscle-strain. 
On the further side, another climb over lava, and 
then cinder-slope again. At times it was necessary 
to flounder across an ash-slide, the soft ash—full of 
glass spikes like infinitesimal needles—filling eyes, 
nose and mouth. Then again lava; on and up in¬ 
terminably. 

Gavin’s eyes were red with injected blood. His 
heart was pounding rapidly. His ears were singing. 
His voice, when he spoke, sounded to him faint and 
far away. He was feeling more than a little sick at 
the stomach. 

At the top of a long hard pull over a welter of 
lava bounders, Concetto called a halt. Gavin, 
though staggering, kept his feet. Martin, red-faced 
and more full-blooded, was at the end of his powers. 
He sank to the ground with a groan. 

“ Mountain-sickness,” pronounced the Professor, 


220 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

and he produced a small bottle of capsules from his 
pocket. 

“Here is cold coffee, Signore! ” suggested Con¬ 
cetto. 

The that is good, but the this is better. See,” 
he said to Martin, “ you had better go down to the 
shepherd s hut again. A few hundred feet down, 
all this sickness will pass away.” 

But Concetto interposed. 

“No,” he said authoritatively. “ The Signore 
must go on. There can be no separation.” 

He pointed to the cloud of smoke above them. 

“ Mongibello grows angrier. I, Signore, I am the 
only one to guide you. It is dangerous to wait, but 

better than to separate. In half an hour, he can 
walk again.” 

The half-hour was precious, but at the end of that 
time Martin staggered to his feet. 

“ On! ” he said. 

Fortunately, for a hundred yards or so, the slope 
was not great. Then came a steep climb. Concetto 
took Martin firmly under the arm, and fairly lifted 
him along. Giuseppe, though smaller than Gavin, 
did the same. Both Etna-born, both accustomed 
to climbing, the rarefied air had no effect on the 
dwellers of Sant Alfio. The old geologist, wiry, 


1 



The smoking peak of Etna, seen from half-way up. 



Photos by the Author. 

What climbing over lava really means; this wall is thirty 

feet high. 

The Scramble Up the Volcano. 





Photo by the Author. 


Looking Down into the Crater of Etna. 

In the great eruption of 1923, the warning shaft of flame stretched 
from rim to rim and was a mile high. The circular cliff in the 
background is a part of the rim. The flat lava to the right 
is not a floor but an insecure shelf. It was glowing hot 

when photographed. 



Photo by the Author. 


Looking Down at the Crater of Vesuvius. 

The distant rim and the rock-shape to the right show the old 
crater, the eruption from which destroyed Pompeii. The 
present crater is a small opening in a low central cone 
which has grown on the floor of the old crater. 



THE VOLCANO SPEAKS 221 

bloodless, climbed on without distress. But before 
they got to the top of that climb, blood was trickling 
from Martin’s nose, and he was temporarily stone- 
deaf. 

On and up! There was no longer any stimulus in 
climbing, any interest in strange scenery. It was 
like some torment of toil in an evil dream. The 
minutes, the hours passed. 

At last, all unexpectedly, fringing the edge of an 
old crater and making one more desperate effort up¬ 
wards, they came suddenly to a great flat plain, level 
and smooth as though it had been scraped and rolled. 
This vast plateau stretches for miles, and yet, so 
huge is Etna, it scarcely makes a break in the cone¬ 
like contour of the mountain. 

From the edge of this plain, they had a full and 
clear view of the uppermost cinder-cone of the 
crater. There remained only a few miles across the 
lava plateau—as level as though it were an exercise 
ground for cavalry—two steep slopes of lava, a wind¬ 
ing scramble along the ragged edges of an old crater, 
a wide ledge, and then the final ash-and-cinder cone 
leading to the top. 1 

1 The author was a member of the first expedition to as¬ 
cend Etna after the great eruption, and the second man to 
reach the summit.—F. R—W. 


222 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

All threw themselves on the ground for a breath¬ 
ing space. Martin and Gavin were at the point of 
exhaustion. Under favorable conditions, perhaps, 
the boy might have reached the summit, but Martin 
could go no higher. 

“Ah! ” 

It was a cry of danger. 

Lying on the cinder-plain one could feel a vibra¬ 
tion, not strong, but continuous, just as when one 
puts a finger on a boiling kettle. 

“ Dangerous! Very dangerous! ” said the geolo¬ 
gist. “ It is deep down, of course, much deep, but 

still-! ” He turned to Giuseppe. “ Ask him if 

there have been any earthquakes? ” 

The guide shook his head. 

“ At Messina, I have heard. Not here. Never 
any here.” 

“ That is bad! ” 

He fell thoughtful. 

Gavin, half torn between the desire to reach the 
summit and his feeling of extreme fatigue, asked 
anxiously: 

“ Do we go up all the way? ” 

“ Close to the crater? You are mad, my young 
friend. Look at the cloud shrouding the mountain! 
Were it the night, you would see the flame. This is 



THE VOLCANO SPEAKS 223 

as high as we will go. It is not wise to wait. We 
must descend, Concetto! ” 

“ Not by the same path! ” returned the guide. 

“ Why not? ” 

Concetto pointed to the long plume of smoke, rosy 
underneath and leaden color above, trailing from the 
cloud that hung above the mountain. 

“ Wen? ” 

“ It turns this way.” 

“ You are sure? ” 

“ Most sure, Signore! ” 

“ You are afraid we might be caught? ” 

“ Can one read the thoughts of Mongibello? ” 

“ Then, where? ” 

“ Better to cross the Valley of the Winds.” 

The geologist nodded. 

“ True, it is not likely that the current rising from 
the mountain could cut across the powerful up¬ 
draught from the sea. The Valley of the Winds is 
over there? ” 

He pointed across the plateau. 

“ Yes, Signore, but we must go round.” 

" And why?” 

The guide walked quickly twenty or thirty yards 
inward, thrust his stick in the ground and then 
pulled it out. After a moment’s watching he beck- 


224 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

oned the rest of the party to come near, but not too 
near. The hole left by the stick remained. Pres¬ 
ently a little whirl of cinder and ash formed about 
it. The whirlpool grew and grew. In a couple of 
minutes, the hole was six inches across. 

The geologist shifted backwards quickly and all 
followed suit. 

“ We go! ” he said, and they did. But, before 
leaving the place, Gavin looked back. That quick¬ 
sand whirlpool was widening steadily. 

Without waste of words, the party began to skirt 
the edge of the plateau. There was no climbing now. 
It was fortunate, for Concetto was setting a pace 
difficult to keep up. He had fallen absolutely silent. 
The only clue to his haste was a certain nervous 
glance which Giuseppe threw over his shoulder from 
time to time. 

“ That fumerole there-” said the geologist, 

pointing in front of them. 

“ What? ” queried Gavin. 

“ It was not there the few minutes ago! ” 

Giuseppe echoed: 

“ It was not there! ” 

They passed close to it. Near by, the steam could 
scarcely be seen, but it was necessary to pass over a 
crack. The geologist stopped a moment, and sniffed. 



THE VOLCANO SPEAKS 225 

“ We have come too far/’ said he, and hurried on. 

“ Why? ” queried Gavin. 

“ You have not looked at the crater? ” 

“ Yes/’ said the boy. “ I thought it was getting 
quieter. The smoke isn’t puffing out the way it 
was.” 

“ I have seen. It is that which is the worse.” 

% 

It was late afternoon before they reached the 
further side of the great plateau. Gavin was almost 
done out. The lack of sleep the night before, the 
long climb, the mountain sickness, the swiftness of 
Concetto’s stride along the plateau ridge, all to¬ 
gether, were proving too much for him. 

“ Couldn’t we sit down, just for a minute? ” he 
pleaded. 

Concetto jerked his head in the direction of the 
great trailing plume of volcanic smoke. 

“ The ashes are falling where we stood at noon,” 
said he, and pressed the pace. 

Relief was soon to come. 

Just at the angle of the great three-cornered 
plateau, a furious blast of cool, wet wind came 
hurtling upwards, damp and chilly, yet most re¬ 
freshing. 

“ The sea-breeze, up the Valley of the Winds! " 
declared the geologist, exultingly. 


226 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


They halted, in the full blast, and every one of 
them—Martin and Gavin especially—breathed as 
deeply as they could, filling their lungs with denser 
air. In five minutes’ time, both felt better, and 
Martin, who had not spoken a word during the whole 
march across the plateau, said, gratefully: 

“ That’s like breathing life! ” 

It was a nasty scramble, rounding the corner of 
the plateau, but in that roaring, life-giving wind, it 
seemed as nothing. After an hour’s walk they came 
to a little ridge marked by three low cones, marking 
the farther edge of the Valley of the Winds. In the 
shelter of these, the guide turned. 

“Half an hour for rest and food! ” he said, and 
unslung the knapsack from his back. “ There is no 
need to fear now. The fumes will not pass the up¬ 
wind from the sea.” 

Gavin forced himself to eat, and then sank back, 
dead with sleep. 

The sun was lower when they awakened the boy. 
His first glance was for the plume of smoke. It was 
trailing lower, lying almost parallel to the Valley 
of the Winds. As Concetto had said, it could not 
cross the upward current. 

“ It is that we go down-hill all the way now,” said 
Giuseppe. “ My uncle lives at Cerro. We will stay 


THE VOLCANO SPEAKS 227 

there to-night. It is on the railroad. To-morrow 
you can get back to Giarre.” 

And what a blessing it was to be on a down-hill 
trail, with every step the air growing more breath¬ 
able, and with the strain of climbing done! And 
those cinder-slopes, so hard to mount, how easy to 
descend! Sticking the heels in deeply, and leaning 
far back, the party went down as if they had seven- 
leagued boots. Twelve hours it had taken from 
Maggazini and four from Sant Alfio. Yet less than 
five hours in all were sufficient to bring them down 
safely to Cerro, just after dark had fallen. They 
had great reason for thankfulness. 

The rough but absolutely heart-whole hospitality 
was grateful, but Gavin cared less for food than for 
bed. As there was but one bedroom in the cottage 
—with a window which was never opened—Gavin 
chose instead an out-shed full of straw. Rolling 
himself in a blanket, he lay down in luxurious soft¬ 
ness, and, in less than a minute, was fast asleep. 

There was to be a waking! 

Quite suddenly, at one o’clock in the morning, 
immediately above the village of Cerro, and about 
twelve miles up the side of the volcano, a triple- 
tongued sheet of flame shot up to the sky. For a 
fraction of a second there was silence, and then the 


228 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


whole mountain groaned and shook under the con¬ 
cussion of the terrific subterranean explosions. 

Gavin, startled out of his seven wits, leaped up 
from the straw and dashed out of the shed to look. 
A heavy stone, glowing cherry-red, falling appar¬ 
ently from a sky of lurid menace, crashed upon a 
house near by, killing a sleeping child. This was 
one of the three deaths caused by the eruption. 

The boy’s first thought was to dash back again 
for shelter, but the inmates were pouring out from 
every house, shouting panic-stricken questions at 
each other. There was no need to answer them. 
The flaming mouths above were an all-sufficient 
reply. 

This burst of roaring fire was of short duration, 
and, almost immediately, a pall of black smoke 
blotted out everything from sight. The rain of 
stones stopped. Came two more explosions, the 
blasts tearing the cloud asunder. Two new mouths 
had opened, and from all five craters ruddy streams 
crept snake-like down the mountain. One glance 
sufficed to show their direction. 

The lava was heading straight for Cerro! 


» 


CHAPTER X 


\ 


A RED WALL OF DOOM 

For two or three long minutes, the startled vil¬ 
lagers of Cerro looked at the glowing doom creeping 
down the mountainside, and then the cloud fell 
blackly again over all. Yet they had seen enough. 
One question, and one question only, was upper¬ 
most in all minds. Would the lava reach as far as 
the village? 

The village cobbler and local gossip, who was be¬ 
lieved to have secret relations with the brigand band 
of Atanasio the Black, hurried up to Concetto. 

“ Where is the Master? Does he know? ” 

“ He is on the mountain! ” 

The answer inspired confidence, and Giuseppe, 
translating to Gavin, explained how the people of 
Etna had more faith in the brigand chief than in 
their government, more faith, indeed, than in any¬ 
thing else in the world, except, perhaps, their patron 
saints. 

“ He will come here, then, surely! He will tell us 
whether the lava will reach us! ” declared the cob¬ 
bler. 


229 


230 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

Concetto pointed to the Professor. 

“ Ecco! Here is one who is learned in such things. 
He has lived in the Observatory! ” 

The villagers clustered round, begging to be told 
whether their homes would be destroyed, or if the 
eruption would be but a little one. 

“ I am afraid to give you the hope,” said the 
Professor. “ The craters are not far. But it is too 
soon to speak yet.” 

I remember,” said a sturdy charcoal-burner, 
known as Pietro the Hairy, “ that one wise woman 
warned us of disaster if the jettatore remained in 
the village.” 

The cobbler threw up his hand with the forefinger 
and little finger outstretched, as though to ward off 
the Evil Eye, and queried: 

“ if because of him that the mountain speaks, 
think you? ” 

The gesture of protection and of menace was rap¬ 
idly repeated by most of the people in the crowd, 
and the hinted accusation spread fast. 

“ Let us as k Pather Ignacio,” said one, and hur¬ 
ried off to the rectory, recently built upon the farther 

slope of the valley, where a new church was soon to 
be erected. 

“ If it be the jettatore, his house alone will be 


A RED WALL OF DOOM 231 

spared/’ said another. “ Then we shall know for 
certain! ” 

Following this conversation, word for word, by 
Giuseppe’s translation, Martin took his two com¬ 
panions aside. 

“ There’s murder in this crowd! ” he said. “ We’ll 
have to keep close watch! ” 

The Professor nodded; he had sensed the spirit, 
also. 

“ If the lava should get here, how soon is it likely 
to reach? ” asked Martin. 

“ Not for the many hours yet. There is the time. 
For the moment, the jettatore is not in the danger. 
They fear him even more than the lava-flood.” 

“ What’s a jettatore? ” queried Gavin. 

“ One who is believed to have the power of cast¬ 
ing magic spells by means of the Evil Eye,” the 
Professor answered. 

“ And there are people who believe that still! ” 
the American boy exclaimed, in sheer amazement. 

“ You see for yourself! ” 

The night grew heavily darker. A dense cloud of 
smoke and ash obscured the whole mountain, and 
absolutely hid from sight the glowing craters. Only 
from time to time, as the edge of this pall lifted, 
could the red edges of the approaching lava-streams 


232 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


be seen, their nearer ends seeming to be larger and 
more menacing. Throughout their entire length 
they were dotted with brighter spots, like gleams on 
the scales of some monstrous serpent. These bright 
points were places where irregularities in the ground 
caused a tongue of the more liquid white-hot lava 
to project from the blackened but ever-advancing 
mass. 

Shortly before daylight, Ricco Giovanni, who 
owned a little hazelnut plantation high on the hill, 
came running breathlessly into the little street of 
Cerro. 

“ It comes! It comes! ” he cried. “ Already my 
house is swallowed! St. Jude, protect us! What 
can we do? It comes! ” 

The excited villagers thronged around him, all 
asking questions at the same time in their high- 
pitched voices, and drowning the more exact queries 
which the Professor tried to make. But even the 
most persistent of the shouters fell silent when Fa¬ 
ther Ignacio stepped forward. 

“ You tell us that your house is already taken. 
So! Then, truly, it comes fast, for your plantation 
is ten miles from the ridge where the craters have 
opened, if my old eyes have not deceived me. Say, 
then, Ricco, how quickly comes it? ” 


A RED WALL OF DOOM 233 


“ Like a frightened snake, Reverend Father! ” an¬ 
swered the panic-stricken man. 

“ Give us the truth, not fine words, my son! It 
cannot move as fast as you can run, or you would 
not be here. Speak, then, does it go as quickly as 
a man can walk? ” 

“ About so, Reverend Father.” 

“ It moves more slowly, then,” interposed the 
Professor, and the priest nodded agreement. 

The eastern sky was now brightening rapidly. As 
dawn came on, the danger seemed to lessen, for the 
black cloud hid all view of the volcano, while the 
red edges of the approaching lava-flows grew paler 
and scarcely visible in the sunlight. That this was 
but the disguising of the menace, however, every one 
of the villagers knew. They had lived under the 
threat of Etna all their lives, and their forefathers 
for centuries. 

“ If there were but time to bring the miracle- 

working statue of St. Jude from Linguaglossa-” 

the priest began hesitatingly, then stopped. 

Just as he spoke the words, a black-hooded figure 
passed between him and the crowd. 

It was the jettatore. 

All, even the priest, shrank back, but Pietro the 
Hairy slouched forward. 



284 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ It is you, with your Evil Eye, who have brought 
this danger upon us,” he asserted threateningly. 
“ If the lava touches my house, I, yes I, Pietro the 
Hairy, will throw you into the hottest part of it, 
that you may spit your soul out there! ” 

“ I, too! ” said another. 

“ And I! ” 

The jettatore looked first at Pietro the Hairy, then 
in a fearless manner swept the crowd with his deep- 
set, burning eyes. 

“ Will your threats stop the lava, think you? ” he 
said, tauntingly. 

Pietro the Hairy looked at him darkly. 

“ They may! ” said he, and raised his hand again, 
in protection against the Evil Eye. 

The sinister suggestion was greeted with muttered 
approvals from the men around, for Sicily is still 
full of witchcraft beliefs, and there is a deep streak 
of paganism in the islanders. Pietro’s hint of a 
human sacrifice to appease the Demon of the Vol¬ 
cano appealed to almost every villager. Even the 
priest made no spoken objection. 

The jettatore, secure in the dread which his pres¬ 
ence had always inspired, taunted his accuser: 

“Your tongue races wild. You are afraid! ” 

Pietro did not waver at the ridicule. 


A RED WALL OF DOOM 235 

“ I am afraid of the Evil One,” he said. “ But I 
am not afraid to send a sorcerer to his own place! ” 

The jettatore threw back his hood, and a strange 
glare came into his eyes. He was about to throw a 
spell. 

A shiver ran through the crowd. 

In the hand of Pietro the Hairy flashed a stiletto. 

Simultaneously, for he had been watching closely, 
expecting this very move, Martin leaped to the side 
of the jettatore, revolver in hand. 

“ The Red Cross will not see murder done! ” he 
cried. 

Swiftly translated by Giuseppe, the words ran 
through the crowd. Some growled offense and 
others nodded approval. Only Pietro the Hairy did 
not move, his eyes watchful, his hand ready to strike. 

In the excitement, no one had paid attention to 
other happenings, but, suddenly, the thundering of 
galloping hoofs came so close that no one could help 
looking up. The Castiglione road makes a sharp 
S-bend just before reaching Cerro station, and, al¬ 
most before the villagers were aware of it, a rider 
on a magnificent white horse, with twenty mounted 
men behind him, came tearing into the street. 

One wild shout of welcome went up from all 
throats: 


236 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ Atanasio the Black! Atanasio! ” 

The brigand chief, who was still the dominant 
factor in the life of many communities inland from 
Etna, 1 acknowledged the salutations of the crowd 
with a negligent gesture, and with a slight lift of the 
eyelid, summoned Concetto to his side. 

“ What goes on here? ” he asked. 

Shortly and crisply, Concetto told the tale. 

“So! And you say this stranger is of the Red 
Cross of far America? ” 

“ Of a truth! ” 

“ It is well! Those who remember Messina do not 
forget! But you lose time, all of you! Rescue, 
first; quarrels, afterwards. Words will not buy again 
what the lava takes. I had thought to command 
you, my children, but there is a better here. To. 
do rescue is the true work of the Red Cross of far 
America. You shall obey this Signore as though 
he were I, in person! ” 

Giuseppe translated. 

“ A thousand thanks,” said Martin, “ but the Red 
Cross helps local authority, not supplants it. Issue 
your orders, Atanasio, and let us give assistance.” 

Gavin chuckled inwardly at the American Red 

1 This still holds true, though such independent leaders 
do not resemble the brigands of old time; many are chiefs 
of the Mafia, and do more good than harm.—F. R-W. 


A RED WALL OF DOOM 237 


Cross recognizing the brigand chief as authority, but 
there was no doubt that he was so. 

“ It is well. Let all that is in the church be saved 
first. Let all men combine to take out of the houses 
what things you can. Concetto, take charge, under 
the noble stranger. See that all furniture and be¬ 
longings be put into carts, or on asses, and be driven 
half-way up the hill toward Castiglione. Leave all 
on the ground and return for more. Begin with the 
most threatened houses first. 

“ Cesare, see that the women and children are 
saved, but let not a whisper from the noble Red 
Cross stranger go unheeded. Silvestro, supervise the 
driving of the live stock. Go, and quickly! ” 

“ And this bringer of evil, what of him, Ata- 
nasio? ” growled Pietro the Hairy. 

“ I will do justice! ” The brigand paused a mo¬ 
ment for reflection. “ It is a simple matter for de¬ 
cision,” he declared. “ It is well known that this 
Marco is held to be a jettatore, and that he has often 
spoken evil of holy things. He is accused of having 
summoned the demons of the mountain; but this, 
Pietro, thou cannot prove, nor the accused man dis¬ 
prove. 

“ Ecco! Here is my judgment! 

“ The accused shall be put, with hands and feet 


238 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

unbound, in the church; the window is to be barred 
and the door double-locked on the outside. If he 
be innocent, let Fate decide! If the lava spare the 
church, or if it fall in such way that he can escape, 
he shall go free and no man shall dare to touch him ; 
if the lava consume the church in such wise that he 
cannot escape, so shall his soul, believed to be the 
possession of the Evil One, return to its master and 
yet no man shall have slain him. 

“ Behold. It is the word of Atanasio! ” 

Pietro the Hairy slid his stiletto back into its hid¬ 
ing-place and Martin put the revolver in his pocket. 

“ Rough justice! ” the chauffeur commented, when 
Giuseppe had translated. “ But it’s not our busi¬ 
ness to interfere.” 

Gavin was thrilled. 

“ Are they going to take him to the church right 
away? ” 

“ Evidently! ” 

It was a grim procession that awful morning, 
where fair and foul met so closely. To the east was 
a clear blue sky and bright sunshine, but overhead 
and covering the rest of the heavens was a semi-solid 
violet-black cloud, heaving bulbously and faintly 
lighted by a dull red reflection below, in the deep 
shadows where the sunlight did not penetrate. 


A RED WALL OF DOOM 239 

Birds twittered in the nut-orchards but the earth 
trembled constantly under the growling detonations 
of the mountain. All that was near spoke of peace, 
yet in the far distance could be heard a strange, dry 
clatter, not alarming in itself, but terrifying to those 
who knew what it portended. 

The old church lay a little distance up the hill, 
therefore nearer to the advancing lava than the 
lower part of the village. It was a small structure 
of brick, deeply plastered within and without. 
There was neither spire nor belfry, but a peaked 
extension of the front wall held a single bell, already 
removed by the salvagers. A rose-window above the 
door, its stonework carved in the curious Moorish 
patterns which Sicilians still do so admirably, gave 
the only light to the interior. The door was open. 

Father Ignacio, evidently anxious to get away, 
removed such of the holy vessels and altar orna¬ 
ments as the villagers had not considered them¬ 
selves worthy to touch, and hurried out, with a word 
to Atanasio. He passed the jettatore with averted 
eyes, not for fear of the Evil Eye, but from con¬ 
scious guilt of his inability to save the threatened 
man. He had known Atanasio for years, and was 
aware that the brigand chief never reconsidered his 
decisions, even when he knew them to be wrong. 


240 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

The jettatore entered with a firm step, defying 
Atanasio and Pietro with his glance. The brigand, 
though conscious of his own authority, whipped off 
his hat and put it before his face to save his eyes 
from that baneful glance, but Pietro, considering 
himself a doomed man, supported the supposedly 
fatal glance. With a stern delight in the doing, he 
bolted and barred the door of the church and nailed 
fast the narrow window of the sacristy, which was 
the only other mode of exit. 

When this was done to his liking, Atanasio gath¬ 
ered up the reins, preparatory to riding away. 

“ Understand thou, Pietro the Hairy,” he said. 
“ If the lava avoids the church, or if the building falls 
in such fashion that the jettatore is able to escape, 
he is not to be harmed. I have said it. Thus is the 
word of Atanasio ! ” 

Martin shrugged his shoulders. 

“ I’m off to the rescue work,” he said. “ This 
justice of yours, Atanasio, is none of my affair.” 

“ I’d like to see it through! ” declared Gavin, who 
was not greatly interested in the mere loading of 
furniture on village carts and on the backs of asses. 

“ It is well,” said Atanasio, when he understood 
the boy’s statement. “ Thou, Pietro, give the key 
of the church to the boy of the Red Cross. So, there 


A RED WALL OF DOOM 241 

will be no temptation. Remain until the church has 
fallen, or the march of the lava shall have stopped. 
Giuseppe, thou will bring me word.” 

The situation was a novel one, and Gavin was 
eager to talk it over with the avenger. But Pietro 
the Hairy was little disposed for speech. He roamed 
about until he found a point whence he could watch 
both door and window. There he sat him down, his 
eyes fixed upon the church like those of a cat upon 
a smoke-hole. The carter’s nature was a primitive 
one, and his mind had room for but one emotion at 
a time. 

The dry, clanking sound gradually came nearer, 
and, with it, the noise of falling trees. 

Climbing on the low wall which separated the 
church property from the hazelnut plantation, 
Gavin could see the approaching lava, in the distance. 

Certain in his own mind that Pietro the Hairy 
would not desert his grim guardianship, Gavin hur¬ 
ried upwards, eager and thrillingly curious to see the 
lava at close range, Giuseppe following closely at 
his heels. 

The sight was utterly unlike what the boy had 
expected, and, at first glance, most disappointing. 

The face, or front edge of the lava-field, was like 
a lofty wall, its top spitted with jagged spines and 


242 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

fantastically contorted blocks. The wall itself 
looked as though it were made of clinkers taken from 
a coke-fire, these clinkers being of all sizes, from 
pieces weighing a ton, to slivers no longer than a 
nail. The general color, where the lava was cooled 
by exposure to the air, was a violet-black, though 
here and there a copper hue showed also. 

But the wall-like edge of this enormous mass of 
molten matter—more than a mile wide and twelve 
miles long—was in constant motion. By reason of 
the friction on the ground, the lower stratum of the 
lava was held back, forcing the top part constantly 
to overhang. As this top layer cooled on exposure 
to the air, it lost the viscosity which held the whole 
white-hot field together, and chunks of all sizes fell 
to the front of the advancing wall, each piece, as it 
fell, exposing the white-hot interior at the point of 
fracture. 

The slope of the ground, at this point, was slight, 
and the lava advanced but slowly. Although, at 
some point along the wall, some piece or pieces were 
overtoppling constantly, as much as two or three 
minutes might elapse before there was any change at 
a given point. Then, little by little, the top would 
bulge over more and more, and huge blocks would 
come down by the run, bringing a shower of incan- 


A RED WALL OF DOOM 243 

descent grit with them, these blocks, themselves, be¬ 
ing overrun by the advancing semi-fluid white-hot 
mass, and raised to incandescence anew. 

It was a fascinating thing to watch, and the spell 
of it grew with watching. Gradually, but only grad¬ 
ually, the terrific and irresistible power of this 
slowly-moving monster of fire bored its way into 
the boy's consciousness. Gavin had brains, and, in 
front of that lava-wall, he learned a lesson not easily 
to be learned—that when the forces of Nature com¬ 
bine to destroy, the forces of Man must combine to 
protect. Nature knows no territorial boundaries, 
and the Red Cross—greatest of all agencies of help 
—knows none neither. The boy could not have ex¬ 
pressed this feeling, but he felt it, none the less. It 
is a lesson worth the learning. 

Yet even so marvellous a sight could not overcome 
the boy's terrible fatigue from loss of sleep and the 
strain of the previous day’s climb. His eyes closed 
in spite of himself, as he sat on a stone wall to 
watch. 

Giuseppe, though he had not had any more sleep 
than the American boy, was more accustomed to 
climbing and to the open air, and stood the weari¬ 
ness better. It was well that he did keep awake, 
for he saved Gavin from a nasty backwards fall from 


l 



244 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

the wall, poked and pushed him until he was a little 
awake and brought him back to the open clearing 
beside the church where Pietro the Hairy still was 
watching. 

“ You take long sleep now,” said Giuseppe. “ I 
keep wake. I see Pietro does not take key. The 
lava not come before night, I think.” 

Gavin’s eyes were burning and his mouth was 
stale. He had not realized how utterly he was worn 
out. He sprawled on the ground, propped partly 
against a tree, prepared to argue the question with 
Giuseppe, and fell asleep in the middle of a word. 

The afternoon was well advanced when he awoke. 

The boy’s first glance was up the hill. It was not 
necessary now to go far to watch the lava. The 
Red Wall of Doom was not more than seven yards 
from the low wall surrounding the church, and it 
was crashing in that same dry, clanking fashion 
through the plantation of hazelnut trees by which 
the church was surrounded. Every few minutes, a 
tree burst into flame, as an overtoppled block of red- 
hot lava fell against it. 

Pietro was not watching the lava. It was doubt¬ 
ful if he had so much as cast a look at it. His eyes 
were still fixed on the church, from which no sign 
of life had come. 


A RED WALL OF DOOM 245 


While Gavin had slept, Martin had been there 
and had brought food—the usual Sicilian field-fare, 
bread, goats'-milk cheese, onions and a gallon of 
strong red wine. The boy fell on these ravenously, 
ate and drank heartily, and, refreshed with sleep 
and with food, felt fit for anything. 

Darkness drew down early, for the great cloud of 
smoke and ash hid all the southern and western sky. 

With the coming of night, the malignity of the 
approaching lava began to show itself more and 
more. The black wall revealed itself as seamed and 
cracked with innumerable fissures, through which 
could be seen the fire within. The falling blocks 
glowed sombrely after their fall; the advancing edge 
of the volcano-born destruction showed redder and 
ever more red. 

As night intensified, the speed of the lava in¬ 
creased. It crashed into and pushed down the low 
wall surrounding the church, rolled slowly over the 
debris and thrust on. 

“ Ah," muttered Pietro, with a grunt of satisfac¬ 
tion, “ it begins! ” 

A huge pinnacle of lava, which had towered 
high, began to totter. So big was it that the in¬ 
terior was white-hot and viscous still. It drooped 
slowly, like a gigantic candle in the blast of hot wind, 


246 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

hung dizzily a moment, held by the viscosity of its 
terrific heat, then broke and fell, revealing the ap¬ 
palling furnace within and bringing down with it 
an avalanche of red-hot blocks and a torrent of fiery 
dust. Down the face of the lava it crashed, struck 
the ground, rolled over twice, and rested against the 
wall of the church. 

The moment was at hand. The grim forces of 
Nature were to determine the jettatore’s fate. 

It was full night now, but every inch of the 
church-wall, every twig on the surrounding trees, 
every stalk of the heat-shrivelled grass, was picked 
out in red light. As the lava came on, faster and 
faster, with scarcely a few seconds’ interval between 
the falling blocks, the glare grew angrier and angrier. 
The emitted heat began to scorch the face. 

Yet Pietro did not stir. He sat there, motionless, 
unheeding the approach of the Red Wall of Doom. 

Ah! What was that ? 

From the church could be heard a voice, singing. 
Could the doomed man sing? Or was it the voice 
of a spirit in the church? 

Pietro crossed himself, and Gavin was conscious 
of a stirring of fear. 

With a clatter and a crash, again a shower of 
blocks toppled down, two of them rolling till they 



Peasants praying to their patron saint to stop the lava, here 
shown steadily grinding forward upon their homes. 



Courtesy of Sciences et Voyages. 


The Red Wall of Doom advancing upon the church, photographed 
just at the moment of the building’s collapse. 

Village on Etna Being Buried in Molten Lava. 






Copyright by Grupi, Taormina, Sicily. 

Striking Photograph of Etna’s New Craters in Eruption, the Lava from Which 

Destroyed the Village of Cerro. 


A RED WALL OF DOOM 247 


touched the church wall. The lava was moving for¬ 
ward, steadily. Now there was not six feet of space 
between the towering pinnacles of the glowing vol¬ 
canic matter and the rear wall of the church. 

Pietro rose to his feet, to watch the more intently; 
Gavin drew closer, to watch Pietro. 

On and on came the lava, a constant stream of 
falling blocks and a never-ceasing slide of incan¬ 
descent clinkers filling up the space between the 
erupted matter and the church wall. Soon the gap 
was filled, and the pressure of millions of tons began 
to thrust irresistibly, but slowly, against the build¬ 
ing. 

There seemed to be no chance of the lava stop¬ 
ping now. 

Pietro’s eyes glistened eagerly. In what way 
would the building fall? 

A crack ran diagonally across the plaster. The 
sides bulged. 

So, for as much as five minutes, the church held 
firm, while the lava piled up behind it until it was 
higher than the roof. 

Then, as slowly as though some giant hand were 
doing it, the walls began to spread apart, the locks 
and bolt separated from their sockets, and the 
church-door swung open wide. 


248 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

His heart thumping, Gavin watched this yawning 
opening into the blackness of the church interior. 

Unhurriedly, and singing in a wild strain, the 
jettatore strolled out, free and unhurt. 

From Pietro’s mind, every order from Atanasio 
and every counsel of prudence fled. He drew his 
knife, and sprang upon the escaping man. 

But Gavin had been watching. The spirit of the 
Red Cross bade him risk everything to prevent mur¬ 
der. Swiftly, he threw himself at Pietro’s legs and 
jerked the would-be murderer off his feet. Giuseppe 
seized the stiletto which had spun from the carter’s 
grasp, and hurled it behind him into the night. 

It took Pietro but a moment to shake himself 
clear of the boy’s grasp, yet that moment had been 
enough to change the current of his ideas. 

The jettatore was not trying to escape. No! He 
was going closer to the lava, and singing strangely. 

Quickly Pietro stepped up and peered into his 
enemy s face. Then, vengeful as he was, he shrank 
back, affrighted, and, with his hand, waved the boy 
back also. 

“ The Demons have him already! ” said he, fear¬ 
fully. 

Hoarse and tuneless, the hideous song continued, 
as the figure of the jettatore, sharply silhouetted 


A RED WALL OF DOOM 249 


against the lurid glow, went nearer and nearer to 
the rumbling and advancing furnace, which seemed 
to draw him like a magnet. 

Once, indeed, the black-clad figure turned and 
looked sidewise at them, and, in the fiery light of 
the Red Wall of Doom, Gavin saw that madness 
lay in his eyes. 

A new sense of duty stirred in the American lad, 
for he guessed what was in the madman’s mind. 
Right and mercy had led him to save the jettatore 
from Pietro’s knife; now he must save him from 
himself. 

Recklessly, and without considering the possible 
consequences to himself, Gavin rushed forward and 
grasped the jettatore by the arm. 

The insane man, crazed by fear through those 
long hours of tortured waiting in the church, turned 
furious at the boy’s clutch. All the tormenting 
spirits of an unhinged mind rent at his shattered 
reason. With a harsh scream that was like nothing 
human, he swept his arm behind him in a terrific 
blow which stretched Gavin prostrate upon the 
ground. 

Then, with a cry of insane delirium, the madman 
hurled himself forward toward a white-hot orifice 
in that Maw of Death. 


250 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

Giuseppe and Pietro leapt forward simultaneously, 
the young Italian lad crying: 

“For the Red Cross! ” 

The hand of Pietro the Hairy fell on the jetta- 
tore’s cloak, just at the instant that the crazed man 
was launching himself into that white-hot mouth 
of horror. 

The struggle was terrible. His eyes bleared with 
the heat, his hair and eyebrows singed and crisped 
by the fury of that incandescence, Pietro wrestled 
despairingly against the superhuman strength that 
madness gives, himself dowered with the power of 
a sublimely heroic action. 

A huge mass, overhead, toppled and fell, almost 
crushing them in living fire, and opened before them 
the inner heart of the volcanic fire, the dazzlement 
of ten thousand furnaces. Giuseppe, gasping, fell 
back. 

Though bruised and bleeding, Gavin had stag¬ 
gered to his feet. Lifted to a delirious daring by 
the terrible majesty of that Dantesque struggle, he 
stumbled forward, himself, almost into the Mouth 
of the Pit, and seized the jettatore, likewise. Giu¬ 
seppe, anew, took heart to help. 

The strength of all three could not drag the jetta¬ 
tore backwards a single foot. They tugged in vain. 


A RED WALL OF DOOM 251 


The writhing figure in black resisted every effort; 
indeed, he drew his would-be saviors nearer to his 
chosen doom. 

But the intensity of the horror defeated its own 
effect. As the seconds passed, the white-heat of the 
riven lava cooled, dulled, yellowed, passed to a fiery 
glare, then to a cherry-red glow, and so to a dull 
black, only seamed and cracked, here and there, by 
lines of fire. 

The appalling lure, the irresistible suicidal at¬ 
traction, was gone. Back, step by step, the three 
dragged the jettatore, back to the road, across it, 
and some distance through the hazelnut trees, until 
the line of the Red Wall of Doom was hidden by 
the branches. 

There, suddenly, the jettatore collapsed, uncon¬ 
scious. 

Gavin was not much better. His brain was whirl¬ 
ing, his legs trembling with body and nerve exhaus¬ 
tion. 

Yet Pietro the Hairy, scorched, blistered, burned, 
intensely suffering, held a firm grip on himself. 

“ Lie down! ” he ordered. “ I will watch! ” 

Gavin raised a feeble hand in protest and dis¬ 
trustfulness. 

Pietro eyed him steadily, then put his finger on 


252 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


the little button which the American boy wore, with 
its motto: “ I serve.” 

“ Fear nothing,” he said, thickly. “ It is in honor. 
I swear it by the Red Cross! ” 


CHAPTER XI 


TRUE PREPAREDNESS 

Gavin had been far more shaken by his experi¬ 
ences during the eruption than he had realized. 
Sturdy as he was, the nervous strain had been terri¬ 
ble. By night, he dreamed of the Red Wall of 
Death, and, in nightmare, he struggled once more 
with the jettatore; by day, he seemed to hear con¬ 
stantly the harsh clanking rattle of the advancing 
lava. 

In response to an urgent telegram from Martin, 
Mr. Oglethorpe hurried from Greece, and, after a 
short chat with Gavin, decided to sail for the United 
States without delay. The crisis had left its stamp 
on the lad, and the banker perceived that an im¬ 
mediate change of scene was necessary. 

Martin remained behind for a week or so, to carry 
through some relief work which he had begun for 
the people of Cerro—for that village was no more, 
being buried under the lava. There was no great 
urgency for outside help, since the King of Italy, 
and the Premier, Mussolini, had arrived at Etna 

253 


254 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

within forty-eight hours of the catastrophe, together 
with some officials of the Italian Red Cross, and had 
taken the situation in hand. With patriotic pride, 
they had cabled to the United States and to other 
generous countries which had proffered assistance, 
that Italy was glad to be able to do all that was 
necessary for the sufferers of the Etna eruption. 

Indeed, the relief work was most efficiently done. 
Every peasant who had lost house and land was 
given another farm of equal value, and a house was 
built for him. There were but three deaths: the 
baby killed close to Gavin by the falling of the stone, 
at the very instant of the outbreak of the eruption; 
a charcoal-burner who had delayed too long and 
found himself cut off by the lava; and a shepherd, 
whose fate was never known. 

Fortunately, the lava had stopped within a hun- 

Nr 

dred yards of the station of Linguaglossa. Had it 
passed the railroad line, at that point, there would 
have been a far more serious disaster, for the lava 
would have run rapidly down the long, smooth slope 
leading from Linguaglossa Station to the centre of 
the populous little town. The inhabitants believed 
firmly that the stoppage of the lava was due to the 
miracle-working powers of the statue of St. Jude, 
and it is a matter of definite observation that the 


TRUE PREPAREDNESS 255 

lava did not progress one inch beyond the point to 
which the statue had been carried. 

Gavin and his father had just left Naples, on 
their way to America, when the first news came by 
wireless of the greatest disaster which has ever oc¬ 
curred in the history of the world: the Tokyo Earth¬ 
quake. Its magnitude, at first, was beyond belief. 
Thus came the first news: 

“ Conflagration subsequent to severe earthquake 
at Yokohama at noon to-day. Practically whole city 
ablaze. Numerous casualties.” 

Half an hour later came a second message: 
“ Tokyo absolutely destroyed. Hundreds of thou¬ 
sands dead. Millions homeless.” Twenty minutes 
later came a third wireless: “American Red Cross 
sends a million dollars to stricken Japan.” 

Messages, trickling in from time to time, instead 
of diminishing the first reports, intensified them. 
On the steamer’s arrival at Gibraltar, newspapers 
were brought aboard which gave the first connected 
accounts of the catastrophe, and from there, in the 
name of the as yet unfounded Chapter in his home 
county, Mr. Oglethorpe sent a substantial check. 

The steamer stayed over in Gibraltar Sunday and 
Monday, September 2 and 3, and Monday morning’s 
papers had a full account of the terrible catastrophe, 


256 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


which, just three minutes before noon, in the course 
of forty seconds, had destroyed Yokohama, Tokyo 
and twelve other cities. A very unusual opportunity 
to witness the earthquake was given to the pas¬ 
sengers of the Empress oj Australia, sailing from 
Yokohama that very day at noon. Their published 
diary of the ten days following this greatest of all 
disasters is a document of deep importance. 

“ On Saturday, Sept. 1st, at 11:45 a. m., all pas¬ 
sengers were aboard, all visitors had left the ship 
and most of them stood on the pier,” begins this 
record of J. W. Doty and W. W. Johnston, written 
at Yokohama. “ The gangplank was removed, the 
gangway entrances closed and the ship ready to sail. 
. . . At 11:57, when every one anticipated that 

we were leaving the pier, a tremendous vibration of 
the vessel was felt, and it was immediately apparent 
that a serious earthquake w r as taking place. 

“ Many people on the pier adjacent to the vessel 
fell to the deck of the pier, and the two-story ware¬ 
house shook violently and seemed to sway laterally 
and vertically twelve or fourteen inches throughout 
the first shock, which lasted from forty to sixty sec¬ 
onds. More than half of the pier from the bow of 
the ship to the shore collapsed and disappeared, leav¬ 
ing only the stringers on a few piles above the water 
level. . . . The collapse of the pier threw a 

great many people into the water. A portion of 
the breakwater encircling the harbor settled from 
eight to ten feet, some of it disappearing. 

“ Immediately our attention was called to the 
buildings which had collapsed along the water-front. 


TRUE PREPAREDNESS 


257 


The Oriental Palace Hotel, the Grand Hotel, the 
Standard Oil Building and other buildings along the 
Bund had fallen, and it was quite apparent that 
most of the structures throughout the city had col¬ 
lapsed. A great cloud of dust arose from the wreck¬ 
age and obscured a clear vision of the shore. 

“ As soon as our gangway openings could be un¬ 
fastened, ladders were sent down the side of the 
ship to take on board the few persons remaining on 
the pier. This was about 12:05. During the in¬ 
terval, a number of other serious shocks occurred, 
and, the dust cloud having lifted, it could be seen 
that the city was on fire in many localities. 

“ The tug left the side of the ship and the wind 
rose to a hurricane, blowing from the shore a few 
points off our port bow at a velocity of from sixty to 
seventy miles an hour, making it impossible to turn 
the ship from the pier. 

“ In the meantime, the fires ashore united to make 
a complete chain of fire around the city, and, fanned 
by the gale, swept toward the water-front. At 12:30 
the whole city was on fire, and the heat coming over 
the ship was so great that the fire hose, which had 
been manned, was played over the decks of the ship. 
. . . A large quantity of burning materials and 

cinders fell on the decks, and many of the small 
boats, lighters, junks, etc., all over the harbor, were 
set afire, and, as their mooring lines burned, drifted 
among the ships. . . . 

“ By 1 o’clock the heat was so intense that the 
fire service was barely able to keep the ship wet 
down. The force of the gale, driving the heat and 
cinders and other debris into the faces of those oper¬ 
ating the hose was blinding, and it required relays 
of men at short intervals. Before this time it was 


258 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


quite evident that no one on shore could have sur¬ 
vived the heat who had not escaped from the city 
prior to the joining together of the fires. The great 
oil tanks exploded, and burning oil covered the har¬ 
bor for miles, adding greatly to the danger.” 

The passengers and crew of the Empress of Aus¬ 
tralia went out in small boats for rescue work, pick- 
ing up refugees from the water or from rafts and the 
ship’s boats worked unceasingly with relays of crews 
for seventy-two hours. By evening of the next day 
1,500 refugees were on that ship, all of whom would 
have been drowned or burned alive but for this help. 
Two other vessels in the harbor also succeeded in 
escaping the flames, and 2,000 refugees were saved 
by them. 

From these refugees comes another account, 
viewed from on shore: 

“ noon, Tokyo time, the ground suddenly felt 
fluid under one’s feet, difficulty was experienced in 
maintaining one’s equilibrium, a deep drumming 
noise was heard, then the hoarse roar of collapsing 
buildings. Above all, the shrieks of frightened 
women and the shouts of terrified men. 

“ Th e streets were instantly crowded, as shaking 
buildings poured out their torrents of humanity. 
Falling timbers and steel girders crushed out lives 
wholesale. Whole families were smothered under 
falling roofs. Men and women, standing at the win¬ 
dows of office buildings, were hurled from them like 


TRUE PREPAREDNESS 


259 


stones from a sling; some jumped in desperation 
and so died. Many were trapped in basements and 
starved to death before rescue parties could reach 
them, or were drowned when, soon after the earth¬ 
quake, a small tidal wave overflowed the canals and 
rivers and filled up every cellar. 

“ The tremors continued; some bigger, some less. 
(Over 700 serious shocks were registered in the first 
four days.) These minor shocks—many of which 
caused serious fissures in the earth—overthrew the 
hibachis or braziers in homes, shops, factories and 
office buildings, smoke and flame rose instantly; 
candles and lanterns in shrines and temples were 
upset, igniting the edifices; oil-storage tanks were 
wrecked, exploded and set on fire; gas mains were 
broken and became gigantic blazing torches. 
Bridges were torn loose from their foundations and 
—for it was noon—precipitated the passing crowds 
into the rivers. Tram-cars, elevated trains, and sur¬ 
face trains were either hurled to wreckage, burned 
where they stopped, or dragged into the sea by the 
tidal wave. To add to all, a savage hurricane drove 
the flames, falling debris, and gas fumes along the 
streets. 

“ Increasing the panic, a report spread that the 
Koreans in Tokyo and Yokohama were going to 
start a massacre, and that the Bolshevist propagan¬ 
dists in both cities had organized a murder-and-loot 
campaign before the disaster was six hours old. The 
Korean scare was utterly unfounded, and volunteer 
police forces, armed with rifles, soon drove the 
‘ Reds ' to hiding. And yet, withal, the sturdy spirit 
of the Japanese is not daunted.” 

Half-way across the Atlantic came, by wireless, 


260 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

the news that the President of the United States had 
issued an Appeal to the People “ to contribute in 
aiding the unfortunate and in the giving of relief 
to the people of Japan/’ and recommending that all 
contributions be sent to the American Red Cross. 
Next day the wireless announced that the sum of 
$5,000,000 was to be raised, and, thereafter, came 
stirring messages as town after town over-subscribed 
the sum assigned for its quota. 

The day of their arrival in New York, the three 
returning Americans were thrilled to read that far 
more than the $5,000,000 for the Japanese earth¬ 
quake victims had been raised in the first week, that 
more than 10,000 tons of food had been shipped to 
Tokyo, that half a million suits of underwear and 
blankets were on their way, that five ship-loads of 
lumber and building materials were already crossing 
the Pacific, and that the whole world was a-thrill 
with the splendor of the work of the American Red 
Cross. 

Gavin begged his father frantically that, instead 
of going home, they should take the first train for 
San Francisco and go on to Japan, but Mr. Ogle¬ 
thorpe had already visited Red Cross headquarters, 
and had learned that no American personnel was 
being sent. The Japanese Red Cross—a powerful 


TRUE PREPAREDNESS 261 

organization with a far larger membership in pro¬ 
portion to population than the American Red Cross 
—was fully competent to direct operations. Hence 
the money which must necessarily be spent in send¬ 
ing American relief-workers such a distance could 
more wisely be expended on rice, salt fish, under¬ 
wear, thick stockings, bales of cotton cloth for ki¬ 
monos, and building materials. 

“ You see, son/’ the banker concluded, “ it’s the 
same old story as in Greece. The Red Cross does its 
work, not in the fashion which will bring it most 
prominently into the limelight, but in the way which 
will bring the greatest good to the greatest number. 
To my mind, it’s the biggest thing in America, be¬ 
cause it’s the most human thing in America.” 

The familiar motor-car, which Gavin had driven 
so often and so fast during the Boniton tornado re¬ 
lief work, was waiting for them at the station, the 
substitute chauffeur in charge. A good deal to the 
banker’s surprise, his wife was not there to meet 
them. 

“ Mrs. Oglethorpe asked me to tell you, sir,” said 
the chauffeur, “ that she was sorry not to be able to 
come, but that she was very much engaged this 
afternoon.” 

And turning his head slightly, so that his employer 


262 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


should not see, he winked at Martin. Gavin caught 
the wink and wondered. 

“ Another bridge party, I suppose! ” said the 
banker to Gavin in a non-committal voice, but the 
boy, who had learned to know his father well during 
their trip abroad, caught a tone of regret, and even 
of irritation, in the words. 

Arrived at the house, one of the maids opened the 
door with a little cry of pleasure at the sight of Mr. 
Oglethorpe and his son. 

“ Ah, Sarah; so we’re back, you see! Where is 
your mistress? ” 

“ In the billiard-room, sir.” 

He stared at the servant. 

“ The billiard-room? At this hour? You are 
sure? ” 

“ Yes, sir; quite sure! ” 

The banker, who had noticed half a dozen auto¬ 
mobiles parked in the drive as he entered, glanced 
aside at Gavin, uncomprehendingly. The boy 
shrugged his shoulders, but, at the same time, there 
came into his mind the chauffeur’s wink. The maid, 
too, while evidently very glad to see her master back, 
had a mischievous light in her eyes. There was some 
mystery here. 

The billiard-room was an immense place in the 



Courtesy of American Red Cross. 

When the Fire Demon is loosed. 

Conflagrations and explosions in industrial plants require as 
quick action from Red Cross volunteers as from 
professional fire-fighters. 





Courtesy of American Red Cross. 

On Guard. 



*r 


i 




'■V 




Courtesy of American Red Cross. 

In Action. 

Volunteer Red Cross life-savers may now be found on almost 

every big bathing-beach. 









TRUE PREPAREDNESS 


263 


basement, with four large billiard tables, for the 
banker was a passionate devotee of the game. 

On the door leading downwards from the great 
hall being opened, the ears of the home-comers were 
suddenly smitten with a curious noise, as of ma¬ 
chinery. The master of the house glanced at the 
maid. 

“ What’s all this, Sarah? ” 

“ Mrs. Oglethorpe is down there, sir,” she an¬ 
swered, demurely, but the mischievous look had in¬ 
tensified. 

The banker, catching the gleam this time, shook 
his head in bewilderment, went down the stairs and 
flung open the great double doors of the billiard- 
room. 

On the threshold he stood, dumfounded. 

All four billiard tables were gone. The whole floor 
was transformed. 

Fifty or sixty machines were working at full blast. 
The clamor was like that of a factory. 

Mrs. Oglethorpe ran forward, and, as she came, 
her husband noted that she wore a little Red Cross 
pin with a dark blue border, a sun for insignia and 
the letter P (for Production). At the same instant, 
the banker perceived that the machines which were 
humming and clattering on every side of him were 


264 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


sewing-machines and appliances for cutting out 
clothing, and the whole situation came on him with a 
bang! 

This was help for the Tokyo sufferers! 

Absolutely regardless of the stares of the fifty 
women who were working as volunteers there— 
many of them being his friends and neighbors—the 
banker took his wife in his arms so enthusiastically 
and so tenderly that she went red in embarrassment, 
and turned to Gavin to hide her blushes. 

“ What’s all this, Mother? ” queried the boy, who 
had not grasped the meaning as quickly as had his 
father. 

“ Kimonos for the Japanese, dear,” she said. 
“ Have you not heard about the earthquake? ” 

“ The Tokyo one? Oh, rather! The wireless was 
buzzing about it all the way over.” Then, as he 
looked about, his eyes fairly hopped with excitement. 
“ Say, Mother, but this is great stuff! You must be 
turning out thousands of kimonos! ” 

“ And I thought it was a bridge party! ” declared 
the banker, remorseful for his misconstruction of his 
wife’s non-appearance at the station. “What 
started you on all this, Laura? ” 

“ 1 wil1 te T you,” she said. “ Let us go where 
there is less noise.” 


265 


TRUE PREPAREDNESS 

They went up to the smaller drawing-room, and 
after some minutes of eager question and answer, of 
home news, of the gladness of family intimacy with 
the three together again, Gavin’s mother began her 
explanation. 

“ After you had gone away, John,” she said, “ I 
began to wonder why this Red Cross work should 
so have seized upon you and Gavin that you were 
both ready to go off to Europe at a moment’s notice. 
You are not generally so impulsive, you know! 

“ So, before I went to White Sulphur Springs, I 
sent to the American Red Cross Headquarters at 
Washington, took out a life membership—for I 
thought that would please you—and asked them to 
send me all the literature they had which would ex¬ 
plain the work of the Red Cross. You see, John, I 
did not want you to think that I had no interest in 
things which meant so much to you.” 

He kissed her hand in the gallant fashion which 
he had picked up in Europe. 

“ Then,” she added, smiling, “ I found I was fall¬ 
ing a victim to the spell of the Red Cross, just as 
you and Gavin had done. After a morning’s read¬ 
ing of the terrible need for such help, I was forced 
to admit to myself that afternoon hotel dances and 
porch bridge parties were very thin and useless. 


266 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 


“ In the Red Cross Courier I read a good deal 
about the need of Public Health Nursing in moun¬ 
tain communities, and, since White Sulphur Springs 
is surrounded on every side by mountain-folk settle¬ 
ments, I thought I would go out and see for myself 
if the accounts were not exaggerated. So, one after¬ 
noon, instead of going to a Mah-Jongg party, I took 
the car and started.” 

Her husband smiled. 

“You must have been finely bumped! I know 
those roads! ” said he. 

“ I learned them very soon,” came her response, 
“ and then I understood what people mean who say 
that America has no roads except a few recently con¬ 
structed motor highways. We hadn’t gone two miles 
before I had to get out and walk. 

“ I have never done much walking, as you know, 
John, but I do not like being defeated or turned 
away from my purposes. So—though I only had on 
thin-soled, high-heeled shoes—I walked all the four 
miles to the little mountain village where I had in¬ 
tended to go. It was steep climbing, too! 

“You can have no idea what I saw there, John! 
It was worse, far worse, than the places I had read 
about, or, perhaps, it seemed so to me, for I was 
finding it all out for myself. All the children were 


267 


TRUE PREPAREDNESS 

poorly fed, several of them were half-witted, there 
was only six weeks’ schooling in the year, the women 
were ignorant and shiftless and without any idea of 
the proper preparation of food, the men were mostly 
sick—with hookworm, I learned afterwards—sullen 
and lazy. I had no idea there were such places in 
America ! ” 

“ There are thousands of them! ” the banker in¬ 
terposed. 

“ So I found. I visited a dozen, far and near, and 
discovered much the same conditions. 

“ Then I read, in the Courier, that one of the Red 
Cross Delano nurses maintains a Public Health 
Nursing Service in a mountain community at High¬ 
lands, North Carolina, all by herself. I drove over 
there part of the way, some of it in the car and some 
in a buggy, and then rode the rest of the distance.” 

“Rode? ” 

“ Yes, on a mule.” 

“ But you’d never ridden before, had you? ” 

“ That was the very first time. But I have been 
on mule-back and horse-back several times since, to 
reach some places I wanted to see.” 

The banker looked at his wife in astonishment, 
for never before, to his knowledge, had she wanted 
to visit anything save a social function. 


268 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ I was fairly worn out when I got to Highlands,” 
she continued, “ but the Red Cross nurse was a 
darling—and so kind! ” She smiled. “ My unex¬ 
pected coming was a little awkward for her. There 
were only two beds in the small room which served 
as dispensary-hospital, both occupied by men, one 
of whom was very ill. The nurse had given up her 
bed to a sick woman. So we curled up in blankets 
on the floor.” 

“ You, on the floor, Laura! ” 

“In a blanket! And I slept wonderfully well! 
Though,” she admitted, “ I must confess I was a 
little stiff, next morning. But when I made the 
rounds with the Delano nurse, in the afternoon, I 
forgot all my stiffness. 

“ John, you’ve no idea how much there is to do! 
Think! There are 8,000,000 people in the United 
States who live in a state of hopeless misery, just 
because they don’t know how to arrange their lives! 
There are 6,000,000 children in the United States 
suffering from malnutrition—that means one child 
out of every four in the American public schools! 
There are a quarter of a million babies dying every 
year from the neglect and ignorance of mothers! It’s 
awful! I know it sounds as if I were talking about 
a land of barbarians, but it’s right here! It’s true! 


TRUE PREPAREDNESS 269 

Red Cross statistics say so, and, from what I have 
seen, the figures are understated! ” 

“ It's perfectly true," agreed the banker. “ I 
learned that before I left. There’s twice as much 
malnutrition in America as there is in any Western 
European country. It isn’t for lack of money, it’s 
mostly for lack of sense. A lot of these people with 
under-nourished children go regularly to the movies, 
a good many of them have cars. It’s because the 
mothers don’t know anything about food, to start 
with; because they are utterly ignorant of the prin¬ 
ciples of cooking, to go on with; and because they 
don’t want to take the trouble, to finish up with. 
In Europe, I find, a woman expects to look after her 
household; in America, as we all know, she does her 
utmost to dodge it. Probably you’ve found that 
out.’’ 

“ Indeed I have, John. It makes me feel so 
ashamed! But it is really much more difficult than 
a man would think! Only the results are so amaz¬ 
ing! A month ago, I knew absolutely nothing about 
diet, except when some doctor told me to avoid this 
or that, because my nerves were breaking down. 
But I do know something about food now, and— 
isn’t there a difference? ’’ 

“ You certainly look a thousand times better, 


270 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

Laura,” declared the husband, admiringly, “ and 
you’ve surely got ten times the vitality.” 

“I'm really ever so much stronger”—she did 
not add “ and prettier,” though such was her prin¬ 
cipal cause of delight—“ I hardly know my¬ 
self. I can walk—miles! I haven’t seen a doctor in 
three weeks! ” 

“ And he used to come every day. You’ll ruin 
the local medical profession, Laura! ” he added, with 
a laugh. 

“ diet is really a difficult subject,” she went 
on, gravely. “I had never thought of it before. 
There is Jed Batton, for example. He is a black¬ 
smith’s helper, and earns thirty-five dollars a week. 
It is very hard work, so I have been told. He has a 
wife, a boy in school, ten years old, a little girl of 
three, rickety and undersized, and a two-months-old 

baby. The old mother lives with them, but can do 
little to help. 

“ How can Liz Batton know enough about di¬ 
etetics to prepare the kind of food which is suitable 
to her husband, which will give her strength to nurse 
the baby, which is the right food for a growing boy, 
for an ailing little girl, and for a toothless old 
woman? She couldn’t prepare six different kinds of 
diet at each meal, and, if she tried to do it, she would 


TRUE PREPAREDNESS 271 

not have money enough. And yet—and yet they 
must all live on the man’s earnings! ” 

“ Well? ” 

“ I sent and found out from one of the trained 
Nutrition Service workers exactly what to do.” 

“ And then? ” 

“ I paid a visit to Liz Batton, with our old cook, 
Mammy, two or three times, and showed her. She 
was quite quick to understand. That was only three 
weeks ago. Now, Jed Batton is better nourished and 
his wife says he doesn’t need the 4 moonshine ’ liquor 
he used to take, she feels stronger, and the baby has 
gained nearly four pounds in the three weeks.” 

“ I don’t know much about the Nutrition Service 
work,” commented the banker, meditatively. 

“Oh, it is ever so varied!. It means personal 
visits to homes—especially where there are babies or 
young children, it means teaching poor families how 
to feed many mouths at a very small expense, it 
means cutting out waste of food—always the great¬ 
est curse of the poor, it means establishing whole¬ 
some and nourishing dishes instead of canned food 
and stupid so-called delicacies, it means lectures in 
schools on what children ought and ought not to 
eat, it means the teaching of making preserves, it 
means giving the children vegetable seeds and show- 


272 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

ing them how to have profitable gardens at home, it 
means cooperation with food inspectors to stop adul¬ 
teration and the sale of unfit foods, as well as a hun¬ 
dred other things. I believe a good Red Cross Nu¬ 
trition Service worker in a community could almost 
double the buying power of the income of every poor 
family by reducing household expenses to one- 
third.” 

“When we get the Chapter started,” said the 
banker, “we’ll have a Nutrition Worker perma¬ 
nently on the staff.” 

Mrs. Oglethorpe smiled contentedly, and crossed 
the room to her little writing desk. Opening a 
drawer, she took out a sheaf of papers and handed 
them to her husband. Gavin jumped up, and looked 
over his father’s shoulder. 

“ What’s all this, Laura? ” exclaimed the banker. 
“ ‘ Suggestions for Chapter Organization! ’ A graph 
of it, and all! My word! ” He turned over the 
pages. “ And all these names? ” 

“ Before you went away, John, dear,” she said, 
“ you told me that you intended to organize a Chap¬ 
ter here on your return. So I have been studying 
Chapter Organization a little; the Red Cross has 
special pamphlets on Administration. 

“ Then Mr. Bowers—Jack Bowers, you know—be- 



Courtesy of American Red Cross. 

What Gives Stomach-Ache—And What Gives Muscle. 

Red Cross Nutrition Service worker explaining to children the “why” and the “how” of foods 

which make snappy basket-ball and baseball players. 







TRUE PREPAREDNESS 


273 


came quite interested, and he helped me a great deal. 
In fact, he has become so keen over it that he has 
posted up an announcement in his works that he will 
dismiss every employee who has not passed the Red 
Cross First Aid test by next Christmas. He is 
keeping an Instructor at his plant, and is giving 
the men half an hour off, in shifts, to attend the 
classes/’ 

“ Just like Jack! He always did do everything in 
that masterful way. I remember talking to him 
about the reduction of Industrial Compensation ex¬ 
penses by means of Red Cross First Aid just before 
I went away,” the banker said thoughtfully. “ It 
is almost compulsory now, in coal-mines and on rail¬ 
roads. The telephone companies have taken it up, 
and all the wide-awake leaders of industry are fol¬ 
lowing suit. He was fairly scandalized when I 
showed him that 100,000 men are killed every year 
and 2,000,000 hurt by preventable industrial acci¬ 
dents, while $20,000,000 is expended every year on 
compensation claims.” 

“ Just as five thousand people are drowned every 
year by accident,” put in Gavin. “ Mr. Howard told 
us that when he was teaching us life-saving in the 
water.” 

“ Mr. Bowers said to me that you had spoken to 


274 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

him,” Mrs. Oglethorpe went on, “ and he has en¬ 
listed the services of his brother-in-law.” 

“ Who? Dr. Caughan? The famous Caughan? ” 

“ Yes. I met him last week at a dinner-party 
given by the Bowers. He asked me to tell you, when 
you came back, that, as soon as you were ready to 
organize Health Preparedness work, he would use 
his influence with the County Medical Association 
to bring all the doctors of the county in line with 
Red Cross work.” 

“ Mighty nice of him,” declared the banker. “ I 
doubt if it’ll be necessary, though. From what I’ve 
seen, about every doctor is a Red Cross doctor in 
time of need, just as nearly every trained nurse is 
ready to be a Red Cross nurse when wanted. 

“ But he’s right in emphasizing Health Prepared¬ 
ness. We wouldn’t have lost, by influenza, 80,000 
more lives than all our death-roll in the World War, 
just by one epidemic in 1918, if we’d been better 
prepared. And a thing like that is apt to strike at 
any minute! 

“ I was surprised, when I came to talk over things 
with the big doctors in the refugee camps in Greece, 
to learn for the first time how modern preventive 
medicine has put an end to the big epidemics which 
used to ravage the world. The Black Death, in the 


TRUE PREPAREDNESS 275 

fourteenth century, killed off two-thirds of the popu¬ 
lation of Europe; imagine a thing like that happen¬ 
ing now! 

“ It almost did, though, not long ago, when the 
i pneumonic plague/ an absolutely unknown pesti¬ 
lence, ten times more virulent than the bubonic 
plague, bringing death in less than six hours, broke 
out in Manchuria. It was through the Interna¬ 
tional Red Cross and the Chinese Government, 
working with the help of the American Red Cross 
and the heroic personal efforts of Dr. Richard P. 
Strong, of Harvard, that this latest and most fearful 
of modern plagues was stopped. It was Dr. 
Strong, too, who controlled the great typhus epi¬ 
demic in Serbia, which threatened all Europe. He 
checked the cholera outbreak in Montenegro, not 
many months later. 

“ To my way of thinking,” the banker went on, 
“ the prevention of disease is even more important 
than its cure. Panama was one of the worst yellow 
fever and malaria spots in the whole world, before 
our doctors got there; all that danger is gone now. 
Malaria can be stamped out, clean out! If I hear 
one single mosquito buzzing in this county ten years 
from now, somebody’s going to get in trouble! 

“ Typhus is one of the most fearful of all scourges, 


276 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

but baths, soap, and petroleum will keep it from 
ever showing its head; I’d put a man in prison at 
hard labor for having vermin, if I had my way! 

“ Typhoid fever is largely a question of cleanli¬ 
ness, good water and the destruction of flies. Hydro¬ 
phobia keeps out of every town where the dogs are 
muzzled. Bubonic plague can’t get a hold in any 
place where the rats and their fleas have been killed 
off. The ravages of tuberculosis can be cut in half 
by proper housing. And as for deaths in infancy— 
three out of every four are due to the ignorance of 
the mothers! A good half of the deaths from dis¬ 
ease in the United States are from preventable dis¬ 
ease. 

“ I sha’n’t be satisfied until every man, woman 
and child, in this county, has got as much Red Cross 
information as their heads will hold, and until the 
living conditions of every family are built up to the 
highest point that the wage-earner’s purse will al¬ 
low.” 

“ There are a hundred thousand people in this 
county,” said Mrs. Oglethorpe, dubiously. 

“ That’s a hundred thousand chances of doing 
something worth while then! ” came the cheerful 
reply. “ But I’m not figuring on doing it all myself. 
I’m going to stir up the intelligent and forceful peo- 


TRUE PREPAREDNESS 


277 


pie in every community to look after the problems 
directly around them. To my mind, every intelli¬ 
gent American, man or woman, who isn’t a member 
of the American Red Cross, should be compelled to 
state why! ” 

“ It is the work of a lifetime! ” commented the 
woman, rather taken aback by the magnitude of the 
plan. 

“ It is the work for a lifetime,” he corrected, “ and 
the finest kind of work that any one can do! ” 


CHAPTER XII 


FOUR-FOOTED HEROISM 

Helping his father in a score of minor ways to¬ 
ward the organization of the Red Cross Chapter 
occupied most of Gavin’s thoughts until the reopen¬ 
ing of school. Then Junior Red Cross activities en¬ 
gulfed him. The rest of the boys were wild to hear 
of his adventures in Greece and on Etna, and were 
especially excited to learn that some of their funds 
had been dispensed under the eyes of a brigand chief. 

Letters had been received regularly from Ivan, and 
it was clear that the Russian lad was winning his 
way steadily forward. He had been advanced in 
pay, and his letters showed a good grasp of English, 
for, like most of his countrymen, Ivan was a natural 
linguist. 

During the summer, one group of the Red Cross 
Juniors had concentrated on the preparation of the 
little booklet, telling of playground games, with ap¬ 
propriate photographs, which was to be forwarded 
to Ivan’s home town, Samara. The printer of the 
local newspaper had put it in type, for the sake of 
the Red Cross, without charge, and an engraver in 

278 


FOUR-FOOTED HEROISM 279 

a neighboring city had made half-tones of the photo¬ 
graphs. The plan was to send the booklet to a 
Russian paper, in New York, the editor of which 
had agreed to publish a chapter, in Russian, once a 
week; then, when the whole book had thus been 
translated, the clippings were to be sent to Russia 
bound up in a little album, with the explanatory 
half-tone photographs. 

This was a piece of Junior Red Cross work of real 
value, and Red Cross Headquarters, which had re¬ 
ceived a copy of the booklet, had sent back a most 
appreciative letter. This letter had been framed by 
one of the boys and was ready to be hung in the 
Auxiliary Room at the first meeting of the school 
year. 

The portfolio which was to be sent to Fiji had 
grown steadily during vacation time, but it had been 
decided not to forward it until all the autumn flow¬ 
ers had been picked and pressed as well. Four of the 
boys had become very expert in the handling of the 
chemicals needed for the preparation of the flowers, 
and the results were striking. Three or four others, 
more of the roving kind, had become very chummy 
with the old botanist, and it was rare that the Doc¬ 
tor went on a herborizing expedition without half a 
dozen enthusiasts at his heels. 


280 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

During the summer, too, while Gavin had been 
away, the boys had developed an entirely new Red 
Cross game, the outcome of reading some French 
Red Cross literature which Mr. Howard had pro¬ 
cured for the Auxiliary. This “ smelling-out ” game 
was one of the very first things of which Gavin heard 
on his return. 

“ You look, see! ” said one of the boys to him, a 
week or so after school had opened. “ The ‘ smell¬ 
ing-out ’ game is on for this afternoon! ” 

“ But just what is it, Dan’l? ” 

“ You come along, an’ we’ll show you! ” 

Some thirty or so of the boys of the school scam¬ 
pered along that afternoon, laughing and skylarking 
as usual, as far as the densely wooded copses behind 
Blake’s Pond, woods covered with a thick under¬ 
growth of shrubbery, as well as of trees of a fair size. 

“ Look, see,” said Daniel, when they had arrived. 
“ How many of us? Thirty? Fine! Here are the 
lots.” 

He turned to his comrade. 

“ See how it goes, Gavin? Eight o’ these bits o’ 
paper are marked ‘Stretcher-Bearer.’ Those who 
draw ’em stay here. The rest scatter! ” 

Gavin drew a “ Stretcher-Bearer.” 

“ That’s the idea. You stay here.” 


FOUR-FOOTED HEROISM 281 

The other boys dispersed in all directions. 

“ They’ve gone to hide/’ Daniel explained. 

“ Hide-and-seek! That’s a girls’ game!” said 
Gavin scornfully. 

“ Is it? You look, see! ” 

A quarter of an hour over, the eight prepared to 
set off, Daniel explaining to Gavin what was ex¬ 
pected of him. 

“ We’ve got to find the rest o’ the fellows,” he 
said. “ They’re hidden, as close as they know how, 
camouflaged an’ all the rest of it, but they’re not 
allowed to climb trees or do anything o’ that sort. 
They’re supposed to be lyin’ down, like as if they’d 
been hit by a bullet or a shell-fragment or something 
o’ that sort. We’ve got an hour to find ’em in. 
Every stretcher-bearer has an eighth o’ the compass, 
so’s we cover the whole circle. You take from north 
to northeast, Gavin; that’s from the line o’ this 
stump to the line o’ that big beech-tree. 

“ Handle it like tracking. Watch for any sign 
of a trail, a footstep in the dust, a broken twig, a 
place where the grass has been pressed down or any¬ 
thing o’ that sort. Look alive under bushes an’ be¬ 
tween rocks. Keep a sharp eye on anything like a 
pile of brush. If you find any one, send him back 
here, an’ that counts one to you. Be back yourself 


282 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

in just an hour. Don’t fool yourself it’s easy, for it 
isn’t, an’ you don’t want to have the bunch guyin’ 
you on the way home.” 

The quest sounded more interesting, described 
thus. If it were hide-and-seek it was, at least, upon 
a more difficult plane. Gavin set out with the evi¬ 
dent expectation of finding the hidden boys with¬ 
out any difficulty. Indeed, he had not been gone 
more than four or five minutes before he found one 
of them, sprawled out under a bush. But that was 
only one. Search as he would, he could find no 
other. Not until the hour was nearly over was his 
attention attracted to a jay, which persisted in 
screaming and calling from a tree. Even with this 
clue, it was only two minutes before the end of the 
appointed time that he discovered another of his 
comrades. 

“ I don’t think so much of this game,” he said, as 
he walked back to the central meeting-point with 
his “ wounded man.” “ And where does the Red 
Cross come in? ” 

“ It’s coming now,” was the reply. 

At the central point were four of the older boys 
of the school, whose earlier absence, indeed, Gavin 
had noted with surprise. They had come later, and 
each had his dog with him. As Gavin came up, 


FOUR-FOOTED HEROISM 283 

these four boys were engaged in tying a piece of 
cloth, marked with a Red Cross, on the back of each 
dog. On this cloth, too, were inked a few black 
crosses. Some dogs had less, some more. A little 
Scotch terrier, belonging to Will Garfield, had twice 
as many as any of the others. 

“ What’s all this for? ” queried Gavin. 

“ Count how many of us are here, now! ” replied 
Daniel. 

“ Twenty-three,” said Gavin, after a moment’s 
counting. 

“ Then there are seven ‘ wounded men ’ still lying 
undiscovered in the woods.” 

“ Oh, I begin to get it! ” 

“ Time, too! ” declared Daniel, sardonically. “Are 
you ready, Will? ” 

The older boy nodded. 

“ Slip ’em, then! ” 

At a signal, each of the four boys released his dog, 
and set them off with cries of “Find!” “Find, 
Pinto! ” “ Find, Buddy! ” or “ Find, Rex! ” 

The dogs, evidently well trained, trotted off obe¬ 
diently into the bushes. 

Three or four minutes later, a loud barking was 
heard in the northeast. 

Daniel turned to him with a grin. 


284 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ That’s in your section, Gavin! One mark 
against you! ” 

Gavin hurried into the wood with one of the other 
boys, following the sound of the dog’s bark, and 
found a “ wounded man ” grinning at them from a 
group of saplings. In order to train the dog, the two 
boys carried the “ patient ” back. Twice, and even a 
third time, Gavin had the mortification of hearing 
the Red Cross dogs bark loudly in his section, where 
the faithful canines had discovered the “ wounded 
men ” whom he had missed. In twelve minutes, all 
save two of the missing lads had been found by the 
dogs, although the eight stretcher-bearers had 
searched for their comrades during an hour. The 
excitement became great between the owners of 
these two dogs. Finally a Belgian Police dog found 
the one, and the little Scotch terrier the other. 

“ Why, this is great stuff! ” agreed Gavin, taking 
in good part the chaffing that was launched at him 
for “ leaving his wounded comrades to die in the 
wood.” “ Whoever thought of it? ” 

“ It’s a regular game in the French and German 
armies,” Will replied. “ Mr. Howard read us all 
about it, one day we went up to his house. One 
time, it was in Germany, I think, an especially dark 
night was selected for a test. Two hundred soldiers 




First Aid in Industrial Emergencies, 








FOUR-FOOTED HEROISM 285 


were carefully hidden, each one in a position that he 
might have taken during a night attack. Five hun¬ 
dred stretcher-bearers, belonging to the Ambulance 
Corps, were ordered out to find them. After two 
hours' search, forty of the two hundred men were 
still missing. That's a pretty big proportion! Two 
trained Red Cross dogs were then let loose, and they 
found every one of the missing forty in twenty-one 
minutes." 

Gavin whistled. 

“ That might mean saving a lot of life, eh? " 

“ France has a national society of ambulance 
dogs," Will continued, “ which trains them not only 
to find the wounded, but to act as dispatch-carriers 
and also to mount guard duty with sentries. A small 
fox terrier belonging to this ambulance service 
trotted out again and again from the trenches where 
she stayed, during the Battle of the Marne, and 
discovered a hundred and fifty men who might oth¬ 
erwise have been lost. And I don't need to remind 
you about the St. Bernard dogs, who go off in the 
blinding snow-storms on the high Alps to rescue lost 
travellers." 

“I know. But you don't use St. Bernards! " 

“ Of course not." 


“ What breeds, then? " 


286 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ Oh, all sorts can be used, according to pictures 
I’ve seen of Red Cross dogs in action. But, so they 
say, for Red Cross dogs a cross between the collie 
and the bloodhound is the best.” 

“HI get one, then, just to put it against your 
Scotch terrier.” 

“It isn’t the dog only; it’s the training, boy! ” 
scoffed Will. 

“ If a dog can learn to be trained, I guess I can 
learn to train him,” declared Gavin. “ No, I’m seri¬ 
ous. We ought to get a little Red Cross Dog Corps 
of our own. Look how useful they could be in a 
disaster like that Boniton tornado! They could 
smell where some one was buried in the ruins, and 
one wouldn’t lose time digging in the wrong places.” 

“ I’m game, if you are,” put in Daniel. 

Three other of the boys volunteered. 

“ If Mr. Howard says it’s all right, we’ll go ahead,” 
asserted Gavin. “ I believe we’d be the only Junior 
Red Cross Auxiliary in America with a Dog Corps 
of our own! ” 

With their interest thus keenly held upon the 
breeding and care of good dogs, the training of them, 
and their use in emergencies, it can be imagined 
into what frantic excitement the school was thrown 
when the news came of the outbreak of black 


FOUR-FOOTED HEROISM 287 

diphtheria in Alaska, with only one Red Cross nurse 
in the place, no serum, a blizzard raging, and the 
lives of a whole city hanging upon the endurance of 
the teams of dogs who were set to cover 655 miles 
of the hardest trail in the world in the dead of 
winter. 

Mr. Oglethorpe had a radio receiving set of the 
most complicated type, and of marvellous delicacy. 
In the hands of an expert, it almost accomplished 
miracles, but neither the banker nor his son could 
handle it deftly enough. When the first news of the 
epidemic in Nome was cabled through, Mr. Ogle¬ 
thorpe sent for a radio expert and kept him in the 
house during those thrilling five days. 

The plague had developed slowly. Shortly after 
the close of navigation, October, 1924, Dr. Curtis 
Welch, the only physician at Nome, noticed a sus¬ 
picious case of diphtheria. The child died. In De¬ 
cember, another suspicious case was seen, but the 
diagnosis was not positively made. On January 10 
a white child was taken ill, appeared to recover, and 
died a week later. The next day, an Eskimo child 
presented a typical and undoubted case. 

The direful plague had taken root in a city 655 
miles from the nearest railroad station, and the only 
antitoxin in the place was six years old. A demand 


290 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

“ There is something in all of us,” commented the 
New York World, “ which relishes the spectacle of 
a living thing in a struggle whose outcome means 
life or death. We watched the progress of Eskimo 
Pete, Musher Olson, Leonard Seppalla, Gunnar Kas- 
son and the others, as they forged on under such 
conditions as most of us could imagine only with 
horror. We knew instinctively what those men were 
going through. It was no feat for us to picture that 
plodding through half-light and dark, snow, wind 
and cold, with death hovering near every second. 
We knew that it was the most primitive battle 
known—man against the elements, man the animal 
fighting to exist, with man the civilized long ago 
beaten and left behind. 

“ Gunnar Kasson, Charlie Olson, Musher Ham- 
mon, Leonard Seppalla, Titus Nicolai, Eskimo Pete, 
John Folger, Jim Kalland, Tom Green and Bill 
Shannon! So runs the roster of the dog-drivers who 
carried the torch of life from Nenana at the railhead 
to Nome by the Bering Sea. In their very names 
are echoes of all the gallant races who have won this 
country from the North. Beside them stand the 
names of the dogs who brought them through, 
Scotty, Togo, and the rest. Most of all stands out 
the name of big black Balto, ‘ the best lead-dog of 
the Northwest.’ 

“ The men who carried the precious little con¬ 
tainer of serum cut the record time over the 655 
miles of trail by a full three and a half days. The 
distance had never been made in anything less than 
nine days, but the serum went through in five days 
and a half, under conditions anything but favorable 
for speed. Kasson and Seppalla, it seems, bore the 
brunt of the journey. 


FOUR-FOOTED HEROISM 291 


“ It was Seppalla, champion musher, who chose 
the short, dangerous path across Norton Bay, where 
hurricanes were breaking up the ice. He might have 
gone round the shore of the Bay, but that would 
have cost precious time. 

“ In a race where there was glory enough for all, 
it was Gunnar Kasson, for twenty-one years a 
musher over Alaskan trails, who carried the relief 
package over the last sixty miles, in such a blizzard 
that warnings from Nome had advised him to delay 
until the wind abated. In the storm and darkness 
he missed the relief-musher sent out from Nome to 
meet him twenty miles from the goal, and so con¬ 
tinued on.” 

Kasson’s own story of his great mush—outdistanc¬ 
ing anything in history or fiction—is characteristic 
of the reserve and simplicity of the men who live 
in the Far North. His narrative—to be prized by 
every one who admires daring—runs as follows: 

“ Well, it was a pretty tough trip, all right. The 
fact is, it was the toughest I’ve ever had on the 
trails, and I’ve been mushing Alaska since 1904. 
But Balto, he’s my lead-dog, brought us through. 

“ He sniffed the trail in the light snow when I 
couldn’t tell where we were, on the trail or off. He 
kept the direction on the bare ice—the wind had 
swept it slick as glass—and the wind was coming 
in so I couldn’t see the wheel dog nearest the sled. 
Balto is a good dog.” 

And Balto is not young! He led Kasson’s dogs ten 
years ago, when they won the Moose race. Two 



292 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

years ago he led the dogs which carried Amundsen 
from Nome, when the great Antarctic explorer 
planned an aeroplane flight over the North Pole. 

“ I got into Bluff Sunday morning, sixteen hours 
before Charlie Olson did. I had thirteen dogs, long¬ 
haired malemutes. They’re half wolf. Charlie got 
in at 8 o’clock at night. He was glad to see me. 
He had run his seven huskies twenty-five miles from 
Golofnin. His dogs have shorter hair. Every one 
was frozen in the groin. They came in stiff and sore. 
They couldn’t have gone much further. 

“ Charlie told me he picked up the stuff from 
Seppalla at Golofnin. Seppalla had mushed from 
Shaktolik. That was about sixty miles. Charlie 
said Seppalla, with his twenty dogs, had a bad trip 
across Norton Bay. The storm was bad there, he 
said.” 

Seppalla had been warned not to cut across Nor¬ 
ton Sound, because the ice was reported to be break¬ 
ing up and drifting to sea. A runner from Nome had 
told him to take the long way round, circling Norton 
Bay. But Seppalla, champion musher of the North, 
knows ice as well as any man in Alaska, and he 
mushed into the wildest of the storm. 

Kasson’s narrative goes on: 

“ Seppalla told Charlie his dogs were still game, 
though they’d mushed eighty miles. He said he’d 
used Togo and Scotty as his leaders (Scotty is a 


FOUR-FOOTED HEROISM 293 

famous champion). This Togo is a good dog. He’s 
smart. He knows what you want before you do. I 
think he’s the best of the string, and they’re the 
fastest in Alaska, they say. 

“ I took the serum from Charlie. He lives at 
Bluff, an old-timer. He owns the quartz mine and 
stamp mill there. It was blowing so hard and was 
so cold we took the stuff into a cabin to get it 
warmed up, and to see if the wind would go down. 

“ But it kept getting colder. It went down to 
twenty-eight below zero. The wind was fierce. I 
don’t know how fast, but I never felt it faster. 
There wasn’t any use in waiting, so on I went. It 
was then ten o’clock Sunday night. We’d waited 
in the cabin two hours. 

" The snow was coming down fast. I hitched the 
dogs. I wanted to get on to the road-house at 
Safety (thirty-four miles) before the trail got im¬ 
passable. The first piece of trail was the best. I 
stuck to the coast, figuring it would make good go¬ 
ing, if not too stormy. The wind was blowing hard. 
I don’t know just how hard. 

“ I had seal mukluks on my feet. They go up 
over the hips. And I had sealskin pants over them. 
On my head I had reindeer parka and hood, and a 
drill parka over that. But the wind was so strong 
that it went right through the skins. 

“ Crossing Topkok River I ran into trouble. I ran 
Balto into an overflow, with quite a bit of water 
running over the ice. I couldn’t see it ahead, it was 
snowing so. I had to turn Balto into a soft snow¬ 
drift to dry off his feet. That keeps them from 
freezing and getting torn on the glare ice. 

“ I stopped only a few minutes, then started up 
Topkok Hill (600 feet above sea-level and ex- 


294 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

posed to the north). The wind was coming from 
the northwest. Topkok Hill is hell when it’s storm¬ 
ing. It was storming some when I got up there. 
My right cheek got frozen. 

“ Coming down from Topkok Hill you come to the 
flat for a stretch of six miles. Along a ways is Spruce 
Creek. It's always the worst spot for wind in any 
kind of weather. The wind was coming across the 
lagoons and sloughs there, picking up the snow like 
it was a comb. It was blowing snow so hard I could 
hardly see my hand in front of my face. I couldn’t 
even see the wheel dog. 

“ That’s where Balto came in. I didn’t know 
where I was. I couldn’t even guess. He scented 
the trail through the snow and kept going straight, 
on the glary ice of the frozen lagoons. I didn’t even 
know when I passed right by Solomon, so I didn’t 
get the message from Nome.” (This message stated 
that the weather had become so fearful, with a drop¬ 
ping temperature and an eighty-mile gale, that no 
man could face it, and that Kasson had better wait 
at Solomon until the wind abated.) 

“ It’s twelve miles and a half from Solomon to 
Safety. The wind across Bonanza was the worst I 
ever felt. The sled spilled every other minute in 
the soft snow, and I had to untangle the dog’s har¬ 
ness, lift the stuff back on the sled and get going 
again. It was dark, too—black! 

“ The going was better after I got across Bonanza. 
The trail turned so the wind was with me. That 
boosted me along so I made the twelve and a half 
miles to Safety in eighty minutes. 

“ The wind had gone down when I got to Safety. 
I mushed by the road-house, but as everything was 
dark and Balto and the others were going good, I 




“Mush, You Huskies!” 

An Alaskan dog-team, like those which were said to have added another epic to the tales of 

the Yukon country. 



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FOUR-FOOTED HEROISM 295 


decided to continue instead of waking Ed Rohn 
(who was waiting there for* the last relay). 

“ It’s twenty-one miles from Safety to Nome. 
The trail runs along the beach of the Bering Sea. 
The wind had drifted the snow between the hum¬ 
mocks and the upper beach. It made the trail heavy 
and slow, but with the wind gone down I could see 
the trail ahead sometimes, as it wasn't so dark any 
more. 

“ Two of my dogs who were frozen on another 
trip began to stiffen up. I made a rabbit-skin cov¬ 
ering for them, but the cold went right through it. 

“ I was good and glad to see Nome. I was good 
and hungry.” 

Such was the story which, in scrappy messages, 
came over the wireless from Nome, from Anchorage, 
from Fairbanks and other points in icebound Alaska, 
all that day and night of February 1-2, and no one 
in the Oglethorpe household thought of sleep, Gavin 
least of all. Indeed, the big double drawing-room 
was packed with neighbors, straining their ears to 
catch every word which the static interference of a 
winter's night permitted to come from the loud- 
speaker. 

Between whiles, from Wichita, Kans., the home 
of Miss Morgan, the Red Cross nurse at Nome, came 
the story of her heroic life, as a nurse, as superin¬ 
tendent of a hospital, as a county nurse, for three 
years as a Red Cross nurse overseas during the 


296 WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS 

World War, then as a missionary nurse to the Es¬ 
kimos and Aleuts of the Aleutian Islands at Un- 
alaska, then as superintendent of a chain of small 
hospitals in Alaska, including those at Unaklaklik 
and at Nome, which was the blessed reason for her 
having been so near to Nome when the black diph¬ 
theria epidemic broke out in the dead of an Alaska 
winter. 

News came, too, how the Nome Chapter of the 
American Red Cross had mobilized every member, 
how the women had volunteered to help the Red 
Cross nurse despite the terrible risk of infection for 
themselves, how the men had established a rigid 
quarantine in Nome and had held down the panic of 
terror which was beginning to spread among the 
Indians and the Eskimos, and how the rough and 
rude dog-drivers of the Far North had vied with 
each other for the honor of a share in that desperate 
journey to bring life to the dying and rescue to the 
imperilled. 

One incident out of many, only; one heroic dash 
of virile adventure; one vivid gleam among the 
scores of brilliant deeds which illumine every year; 
but one which set the heart of America beating 
faster, and which brought every section of the coun¬ 
try, every class, every racial stock, every individual. 


FOUR-FOOTED HEROISM 297 


into the only heart-link which is truly universal— 
the Brotherhood of relief to those in distress, the 
Sisterhood of mercy to those in pain. And its ban¬ 
ner, in America, is that of the American Red Cross. 


THE END 


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